


Five times the Avengers met Spider-man and the one time they met Peter Parker

by sarcasmismyweapon



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avengers Compound, Cute, Cute Peter Parker, Fluff, Funny, Gen, Innocent Peter Parker, Marvel Universe, Not Canon Compliant, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Post-Civil War (Marvel), Precious Peter Parker, Protective Steve Rogers, Protective Tony Stark, Sassy Tony Stark, Spider-man's secret identity, Team Dynamics, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-15
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-05-12 12:35:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 34,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19229263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcasmismyweapon/pseuds/sarcasmismyweapon
Summary: A series of interconnected one-shots about Peter meeting the Avengers after civil war as the rogues return to the Avengers compound. Tony might have forgotten to mention to the team about the spider wandering the compound from time to time, the team is, of course, curious to meet this Spider-man fellow.5+1 things





	1. Security Breach-Steve

**Author's Note:**

> The very first fic I've written in the MCU universe, so please be nice XD. I just couldn't get this idea of the Avengers team being curious about Spider-man and thus this fic became reality. 
> 
> Should be obvious but this breaks away from Canon, the rogues having come back to the Avengers compound as the team tries to get over the events that took place in Civil war.

**Security Breach**

**Steve**

 

Getting used to the rogues moving back into the compound had taken some adjusting, everyone was on their toes about it but things were leveling out. For the most part. There were still small snide comments thrown about but now it was hard to tell if it was in jest or not, most of the time they treated it as if it was all a joke. Far better to let things slide off their shoulders than end up in another fist fight. 

In all the transitioning Tony might have forgotten to mention some things to the others, after all, he’d predominantly been the one at the compound while everyone else was scattered around the globe. The only person who’d been around was Rhodey, but the man was so busy with his PT that they didn’t truly see much of each other in the compound itself. Dinners with just him and Pepper were a different thing, those were happening far more often since the man’s ‘accident’. 

So it stood to reason that in all the moving about, getting used to one another again that Tony might forget a particular addition to the compound...Or rather a person. Tony had been working in his workshop, tinkering with a new repulsor set up that he wanted to try on his new suit. For once the music absent from his workspace, something that the person walking in should have taken for the oddity that it was. They did not.

Tony was humming a bit under his breath as he checked the power output on the repulsor, frowning when it was far lower than what he’d expected.  “Hand me the Philips.”

There was a brief pause before his guest stated. “We need to talk.”

Tony froze, looked up and smirked. “Capsicle.”

Steve took a breath, doing his best not to show how the man’s nickname irritated him. “Tony.”

Hearing the irritation and subtle shift in the man's voice prompted Tony to say. “No-No I heard you, alright, what about? Did you not like your room? Want to trade with someone else? Cause I’d remind you that you chose that room when I first built this place and there’s no taksey backsies.” Tony was grinning like a loon.

Steve glared back at the genius. “It’s about the security logs.”

Tony hummed as he went back to analyzing his project. “Alright I’ll bite, what about them?”

Steve shook his head at the man’s carefree tone. “You didn’t notice?”

“Hmm...Gonna have to say no since you’re in here bothering me.”

“Someone’s breaking in.”

Tony stopped his joking, he frowned and looked up to stare back at the super soldier. “From where?”

Relieved to finally have the mans attention, Steve held out the Starkpad he’d brought with him, the scrolling text of the security logs already loaded up.

“Nat saw it first and showed it to me, we’re not experts like you so-”

Tony waved a hand as he took the device and began to hum while scrolling through it. His fingers paused nearly instantly, a broad smirk on his face. “Ah...Yeah, that.” Looking up Tony tossed the device back at Steve. “It’s nothing.”

“Tony.” Steve furrowed his brow. “This isn’t nothing, someone’s been breaking into the compound at odd hours of the day and night, random days and-”

Tony waved a hand. “It’s nothing Cap, don’t blow a fuse.”

Steve slammed the device on the table, gaining the man’s attention by force alone. “Listen to me, after all, that’s happened do we really need more issues? This is your tech, you know how it works, so if this is some random coding that Nat mistook for something then tell us, but don’t just wave what we have to say off.”

The edge to the man’s voice had Tony nodding, he stared back at the soldier a moment longer, appraising him. “Alright.”

Steve sighed in relief, finally, he was getting somewhere. Dealing with Tony could be like pulling teeth sometimes and it was clear that today would be no different.

“Hand me the Phillips.”

“Ton-” Steve jumped when a screwdriver was tossed into the man's outstretched hand. Twisting about sharply in the direction the tool came from Steve froze. The figure that was hanging upside down not five feet away from him waved before shooting out a web to snatch up the tool that Tony had finished working with. Placing it some kind of storage bag that had been rigged up to be right side up despite the figure using it being upside down. Steve knew this person, he’d fought with them in Germany.

“Wha-”

“Kid, did we bring any of the new fuel up with us?”

“Uh...No Mr. Stark, remember Friday told us it was unstable.”

“Right...Right.” Tony hummed. “Is it still down there?”

“Um, yeah?”

Tony glanced up at the teen, ignoring how Steve was gaping at the kid, he’d watch the security footage later. “You don’t sound so convinced there underoos.”

The teen sighed. “Friday said that it might be taken with the rest of the biochemical remains.”

“Not the answer I was looking for.”

“Sorry, Mr. Stark.”

Tony waved a hand at the kid, wasn’t his fault that Tony had mistakenly put the incredibly unstable fuel in the ‘to go’ pile. “Alright, let's just do this the old fashioned way, need a jump start.” Looking up at the kid Tony muttered. “Am I talking to myself? Go get the defibrillator.”

“Oh...Yeah.”  Peter swung down from the ceiling, landing just a foot away from Captain America and quickly ran over to a nearby shelving unit, sorting through the various components there before finding the lunchbox-sized machine. Running back over, Peter put it on the man’s workstation. “It’s fully charged.”

“Good...Hopefully, I’ll only need a boost.” Tony looked up from his project a moment to stare at the masked kid. “Good job Underoo’s get back to your station.”

Peter snorted but calmly walked back over to where Captain America was standing in shock. Peter shot up another web strand and effortlessly climbed it before flipping around. The teen made sure all the tools were safely in place, his eyes locking onto that of the super soldier.

“What?” Peter asked nervously.

“Oh. Cap, in case you couldn’t figure it out for yourself, that’s your intruder.” Tony smirked as he glanced up in time to see Steve nod his head. “We good then?”

“What’s he-”

“Doing here?” Tony finished for the man. “Well, looks to me like he’s handing me tools while I work on this repulsor. Isn’t that right kid?”

“Yep.”

Nodding Tony smiled when Steve turned his attention away from the hanging teen to Tony. “What is going on?”

“Nothing, we’re working.” Tony shrugged, leaning back to simultaneously crack his back and get some distance from Steve as the man had taken a step closer.

“Tony-That’s the kid from Germany.”

“Good your eyes aren’t going bad with age.”

Steve ignored the age joke in favor of stating. “Isn’t he just a kid?”

“Maybe? I can’t remember, how old are you underoos? Graduated from preschool right?”

“That’s not funny Mr. Stark.”

Chuckling at the deadpanned voice of the masked teen, Tony waved a hand. “Relax, I know how old you are.” Looking Steve straight in the face, Tony replied. “He’s fourteen.”

“I’m fifteen.”

“Fourteen and a half.” Tony shot back as if it were some kind of auction. There was a groan from the upside down teen, but no further argument. 

Steve frowned, glancing up at the teen. “I-I didn’t think you were that young, Jesus kid, I never would have dropped that carrier on you if-”

Tony snorted. “Please, he’s fine. He drinks his milk, don’t you underoos?”

“Sure.” Came the annoyed retort before the teen shook his head at Steve. “I’m fine Captain Rogers, you didn’t hurt me.”

“Kid’s got strong bones.” Tony quipped.

Steve glared back at Tony not that it did him any good, looking back at the teen who was dangling upside down the super soldier stated. “I-I still never would have done that kid.”

Peter shrugged, though it didn’t transmit well while being upside down which was why Peter followed it with. “It’s fine. Sorry I stole your shield.”

Steve smirked at the kid's apology, he genuinely sounded remorseful for it. 

“I told you not to apologize to him, last thing I need is him having another reason to say I told you so after you leave.”

Peter chuckled. “Sorry, Mr. Stark.”

Steve sent a rather impressive glower towards the man. “He has a room?”

Tony laughed loudly before going dead silent. “No.”

Peter sighed. “I live in Queens Mr. Rogers, there’s no way my aunt would let me stay here.”

Steve frowned, right he was just a kid. “You live with your aunt?”

Peter nodded. “Yep, but she doesn’t mind me coming over from time to time, so long as I’m back in time for curfew.”

Steve sighed, yep, he was definitely a kid. The look he shot Tony was given a sly grin, the man didn’t care. “It’s good to make sure you don’t worry her.” He shot out at the kid while glowering at Tony.

“Yeah, she worries, but Mr. Stark keeps me out of trouble and tells aunt May when I’m going to be late.”

“Gotta keep an eye out for my little spiderling.”

Peter groaned. “Mr. Stark, stop calling me that.”

That got a genuine smile from Steve, despite his anger at Tony for bringing a literal kid into the mix, he had to admit it was funny to see the kids reactions to one of Tony’s better-known quirks.

“Alright kid, climb down from the ceiling, shake the nice fossils hand and go do your homework.”

Peter slid down on the web, flipping over to land on his feet right side up. He blinked a few times back at the man, held out his hand. Steve took the kids hand up and shook it.

“Nice to meet you kid.”

“It’s really cool to meet you, sir, well, again...Without the whole fighting thing.”

Steve chuckled. “Yeah, I’m pretty fond of this way too.”

“Great, meet and greet is over. Homework.”

Sighing Peter let go of the man’s hand and walked to a nearby workstation, he was about to sit before he was called to a halt.

“Kid, you left my tools on the ceiling again.”

“Oh...Oops. Sorry, Mr. Stark, I’ll get them down.” Peter ran over and climbed the webbing like it was a rope, coming to a stop and pulling the satchel the tools were in free of the webbing he’d used to hold it upright for himself. Sliding back down, Peter set the bag on the workstation. “Sorry.”

Tony waved a hand. “Don’t leave web everywhere, Pepper gets upset when she walks into it.”

Peter huffed. “That’s not my webbing Mr. Stark, that’s you refusing to dust.”

Steve chuckled as the put-out teen wandered back to the other desk, pulling some supplies out of a backpack that had been laying there the whole time. Steve truly had been short-sighted when he came in to talk with Tony. Watching the kid set about his homework, Steve asked. “Who is he?”

“Spider-man.”

Steve sighed. “His real name Tony.”

Tony looked up from the repulsor he was working on. “Does it matter? Are you going to be pen pals, write each other notes?”

“No, but I think if the kid is going to be sneaking in and out of the place we should get to know him.”

“He doesn’t sneak, he climbs in through various means...Namely windows. Sometimes vents.” Tony thought about that a moment. “Mostly windows.”

“Tony.”

“Spider-man!”

Peter twisted his head. “Huh?”

“Captain America-Spider-man...Spider-man- Captain America. There we’re all introduced.” Tony said in a chipper tone before shooting the kid a firmer look. “Zip it on the identity-sque okay?”

“Umm...Yeah? I already knew that Mr. Stark.”

Shaking his head Tony pointed to Steve. “Him included, all of them included.” Tony enforced.

“Oh...O-Okay, yeah, sure...No problem.”

Nodding Tony smiled back at Steve. “So now you can go back and tell Nat that the only thing climbing into the compound is a smaller arachnid then herself.”

Steve snorted. “Yeah...I don’t think she’ll buy that Tony.”

Tony waved a hand. “We have proof.”

Smirking the super soldier shook his head. “Alright...Alright, I’ll go tell the others that there’s no security breach and...We have a guest.”

Tony rolled his eyes, he didn’t much care what Steve said to the others so long as they knew to leave the kid alone. “He’s off limits Rogers.”

Steve nodded as he twisted to leave, walking towards the door he called out. “See you later Spider-man.”

“Oh- Hey, Bye-Bye Captain America.” 

Chuckling under his breath, Steve shook his head when he heard Tony shout. “Suck up, get back to work!”

“Sorry, Mr. Stark.”

 


	2. Security Breach-Bruce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bruce stumbles upon Spider-man in his own lab, their meeting might have been better if it was under different circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to all the kind people who wrote comments, I'm so happy that everyone seems to be enjoying the story thus far. Here's the next chapter, Bruce gets to meet Spider-man.

**Security Breach**

**BRUCE**

 

The news around the compound of their ‘guest’ had the other Avengers curious to meet the little Arachnid, so far no one had seen him. All under the belief that the boy would only truly be seen in Tony’s workshop where none of them were particularly invited, so the Avengers contented themselves with the odd conversation of whatever Friday’s security scans would show them. Random windows which were opened periodically seemingly without a reason, they knew the cause at least. Spider-man.

So it was to Bruce's surprise that he came back to his own lab one afternoon to the sounds of hissing followed shortly by. “Ow, sheesh that stings.”

Frowning, not only at the fact that someone was in his lab without him but the younger quality to the voice, Bruce sped up. Rounding the doorway only to pull himself short. His workplace was a mismatched room full of scientific equipment and a smaller med-bay the Avengers used when they didn’t make use of the main med teams help. There sitting on the medical bed and currently trying to treat what looked like a nasty gash on the leg was none other than Spider-man.

Smiling at the teen's attempts to reach the wound and not fall off the bed at the same time, Bruce called out. “Need some help?”

“AHH!” Peter jumped, hands anchored to the ceiling in an instant, he looked down at the now wide-eyed Bruce Banner.

“Wow, those are some reflexes kid. Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” Bruce stepped forward, his eyes on the teen who had managed to jump so high and so fast simply because he’d startled him.

Peter swallowed, nervously, he’d literally just jumped onto the ceiling because he’d been startled, he was glad he was wearing his mask as he was beet red.

“Wanna come down and I’ll take a look at that?”

Peters head canted to look down the length of his body to see his leg, it was bleeding still, okay it had never really stopped, but still...Drops of blood falling from the ceiling to the floor. “Oh...Um...”

“It’s okay, just come down.” Bruce patted the bed before walking to a nearby supply cabinet, pulling on a pair of gloves he turned around only to find no patient waiting. Looking up he smiled. “Kid, I can’t really climb walls like you can, you’re going to need to come down here if you want my help.”

“R-Right.” Peter nodded, allowing his legs to fall down towards the ground while his arms stayed anchored, he dropped. Hissing when he landed and hopping a few times as the wound in his leg hurt.

“Sounds painful, hop up onto the bed.”

Peter nodded, Jumping up with ease he gritted his teeth. “Yeah-Kinda hurts.”

Bruce smiled as he sat down on the wheelie chair in the room and scooted himself to be in front of the boy's leg. The suit had been torn, baring the wound and splashes of pale skin. Looking up at the teen Bruce commented.

“I need to open your suit more, it’s already torn but-”

Peter groaned his hands coming up to brace his mask as if he could hide away that way. “Mr. Stark is going to kill me.”

Chuckling Bruce shook his head. “He’s not going to kill you, I’m sure this wasn’t your fault.”

Peter hung his head a bit and watched on as the man pulled the suit apart, the seams tearing further. Peter grimaced at the sound, micro-fibers splitting only to his own ears. Yep, Mr. Stark was going to freak out.

“What caused this?”

Peter hummed as he steadfastly looked away, hearing the suit being torn apart was bad enough he didn’t need to watch it further. “Something sharp.”

Bruce chuckled at the boy's quick-witted quip. “I got that much, do you know what? If it was metal you need a tetanus shot.”

Peter huffed as he stared at a poster of the scientific periodic table. “Mr. Stark already made me get one of those.”

“Good.” Bruce nodded, pleased to hear that Tony was at the very least looking out for the kid in a small way like that. Gently blotting the wound with gauze, Bruce shook his head, it was definitely deep. He heard the boy hissing in pain and apologized again, getting a strained reply of ‘you’re good.’ Bruce knew that was a lie, but didn’t call the boy on it. Removing yet another sheet of gauze away, Bruce grimaced, deeper than he thought.

“Kid...This is deeper...” Looking up in time to see the boy glance back at him, Bruce relayed. “You need to lay back for me okay? Don’t look at it.”

Peter nodded his head, laying back flat on the bed. “Is it bad? Like-Bad-Bad? Mr. Stark is-”

“Tony will be fine.” Bruce bit out when it seemed that was all the boy was worried about. “I’m more worried about you, how do you feel? Lightheaded? Dizzy?”

“Umm...A bit nauseous but that’s mostly because I know Mr. Stark is going to be mad.”

Sighing Bruce reminded the teen. “Kid, listen to me, Tony isn’t going to be upset about whatever happened okay? Our first priority is you, so I’m going to wrap the wound and get some supplies so I can really address it.”

“Okay.” The teen's voice was meek, afraid.

Bruce shook his head as he stood up, peeling off the soiled gloves before going to locate all the things he’d need. Suturing equipment, saline, alcohol, debriefing kit, I.V. supplies, and a vial of Oxycodone. The least he could do was to try and make this hurt less, doing deep tissue stitches wasn’t going to be pleasant for the kid. Laying his supplies onto the little cart he rolled it over to be next to the bed and his chair. “Alright, I need to do some stitches and they have to be deep so I’m going to get you hooked up to an I.V. to help with fluids since you’ve lost some blood.”

“Wait!”  Peter sat up on his elbows to stare warily at the doctor.

Bruce jolted at the boy's loud shout. “What?”

“N-Um...No needles.”

Sighing Bruce informed the teen. “I can’t do that kid, you’re leg is open to the air, its infection waiting to happen and it’s deep. I need to do stitches to close the wound.”

Peter shook his head from where he was on the bed, he was trying to do what the man had said and stay at least partially laying down but Peter just couldn’t have him doing stitches. “Please don’t. I’ll be fine, I promise, I don’t need you-”

“Spider-man, boss would like to know your ETA to the compound.”

Peter froze. “Shit. Friday...Tell him I’m not here. I’m late and-”

Sighing at the boys weak attempts to avoid Tony, Bruce cut in. “Friday tell Tony to come down to my lab.”

“No!” Peter sat upright in a hurry. “You can’t do-” Peters gaze locked onto his leg and the carnage that had previously been blocked from vision, his eyes widened even as he stammered. “T-That looks bad.” The boy fell backward, Bruce jumped forward cursing as the kid went crashing back to the bed only to lay still. Taking a few deep breaths of his own Bruce called out. “Friday, what are his vitals?”

“Spider-man is stable, heart rate is slightly elevated and oxygen saturation is normal, though there is a decreased volume of blood and outside trauma to the left lower leg.”

Nodding Bruce patted the kid's chest. “Nothing like a bit of Vasovagal syncope to make this fun.”

“Boss is on his way.”

Snorting Bruce muttered. “Yep, there comes the audience.” Shaking his head, Bruce maneuvered the boy a bit to help him come out of the little slip up of his own. It didn’t take long for the teen to start groaning, his limps shifting as if he was trying to figure out how to work them. The boy wasn’t even fully conscious when Tony took a step inside the lab only to come up short.

Bruce Banner was holding Spider-man against himself, there was blood on the floor, the bed, and more importantly the kid. Tony’s heart stopped beating for all of a minute before Bruce uttered.

“I could use your help, he’s not too fond of needles.”

Tony came forward in an instant, ignoring the fact that his shoes were stepping in the kid's blood, smearing it on the floor. Gently Tony reached out and accepted the small burden to lean against his own chest.

“Jesus Underoo’s what did you do?”

“He’s got a laceration on his lower left leg, it's down to bone Tony.” He sent a firm look towards the mechanic.

Tony nodded sporadically. “Right...Well then, stitch him up.”

Bruce huffed at the easy-going response from the man. “I have to clean it first Tony and I want him on an I.V. for fluids, I don’t know how much blood he’s lost or-”

Tony looked at the teen in his arms, Peter was groaning, his coordination coming back bit by bit as he became more aware of his surroundings. Tony knew that he wasn’t ready for Peter’s identity to be known, not even to the Avengers so he compromised, for the sake of the boy's health. Reaching down, he hit the spider emblem on the chest of the suit. It decompressed and fell loose around the teen’s body. Tony met Bruce’s startled eyes. “Have at him.”

Bruce smirked, gently coming to peel the boys suit from his body, not overly surprised to find the boy in nothing but his boxers. Bruce frowned when he saw that Tony was keeping the kids mask on.

“Tony-”

“Non-negotiable.”

Sighing Bruce didn’t put up much fight, his real concern was the kid's leg, not his face. Peeling the suit from the kid, he tossed it at a nearby chair and took a better look at what he was dealing with. “Yeah, definitely need to wash this out.”

“He say what happened?” Tony adjusted Peter when the kid’s head turned into his chest.

“No, just that you’d be mad.”

Tony snorted. “Damn straight I’m mad.”

Bruce paused in his examination, looking up at Tony. “Tony the kid-”

“Should have known better, what was he thinking?! Skulking around instead of just asking for help? He knows better, he knows that he doesn’t have to do this alone.”

Bruce gave a small smile, proud to hear Tony shouting about something good for a change. “We’ll get him sorted out. I’m going to do the I.V. while he’s still out of it.”

Tony took a few deep breaths to try and calm himself. “Probably for the best.” He muttered, watching on as Bruce prepped the needle and slowly slid it into the boy's hand, releasing the needle and leaving the catheter behind and making sure to tape it down in place so the boy's movements would have a less likely chance of ripping it out. Nodding, Bruce hung up the Saline bag and reached for the vial of Oxycodone, he was about to puncture the vial with a needle when Tony asked.

“What’s that?”

Bruce looked past the needle to Tony’s frowning face. “Oxy, kids going to need it, the stitches have to go deep and-”

“And that won’t work on him.”

Bruce lowered the vial and needle. “What?”

Tony shook his head even as he took a hold of Peter’s hand when the boy subconsciously reached to meddle with the I.V. “His metabolism’s fast.”

Bruce shook his head. “Tony a fast metabolism doesn’t mean it doesn’t work, I can give him a bit more fo-”

“Think Steve on steroids.”

Bruce halted what he was doing. “Say that again?”

Tony nodded at the blanched look he was getting from the scientist. “Steve on steroids, the kid's metabolism is through the roof Bruce, he has to eat every two hours practically. Drugs-” He pointed at the vial with the hand not cradling the teen to himself. “That won’t even touch his system before it’s burnt out, it’s pointless.”

“Shit...Alright, do we have anything that will work on him?”

Tony took a breath. “A swift punch to the head might do it.”

Bruce glared. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s not, but it's all we got. Cho is working on trying to develop something for him, but we’ve got nothing till that pans out.”

Sighing at the bleak outlook, Bruce muttered. “This is going to hurt Tony.”

Tony stared down at the teen even as he nodded. “I know, not my first rodeo with the kid...At least he’s got one thing going for him.” The man chuckled.

“What’s that?” Bruce grumbled as he set about prepping the suturing needle.

“He heals fast.”

“How fast?”

Tony chuckled at the incrimination in the man's voice, as if Tony didn’t know what fast was when it came to healing. “Those fancy stitches you’re giving him will be gone by the end of the week.”

Bruce looked up startled. “Seriously?”

Tony gave a nod. “He’s also going to eat like your other side.”

Snorting at the comparison, Bruce nodded and steadied the boy's leg between his knees, prepared to start working.

“Ah...What? What happened?”

“Screwed the pooch kid.”

“M-Mr. Stark?” Peter tilted his head sideways only to find that he was resting on a bed with his mentor’s arm around him, the man’s hand holding his arm down from where he’d tried to reach for the sting in his other. “W-What’s going on?”

Sighing Tony muttered. “Got hurt on patrol kid, really want to hear the story on this one but it’ll have to wait. Bruce here is going to patch you up good as new, make you look like a real boy again.”

Bruce rolled his eyes at the man's words, calling out to the distressed teen. “I have to stitch up your leg, Tony’s going to be right there and I’ll be as quick about this as I can but I’ not going to lie, kid, it’s gonna hurt.”

The reaction was instantaneous. “No-No-No...Please, Mr. Stark, please, it’ll be fine, I can heal-You know I can heal-”

With a pained look, Tony shook his head. “Kid, I would if I could, but we can see bone. That’s more than what a bandaid could cover up kid.”

“No no no, please...Please, Mr. Stark.”

Sighing Bruce looked up at Tony and shook his head, the kid was starting to put up a bit of a fight, the kids leg shifting in between his knees enough that the doctor didn’t want to put in that first stitch, afraid he’d dig it deeper than needed by mistake.

“Hey. Hey-Underoo’s listen. Listen!” Tony raised his voice to get over the boy's attempts of begging his way out of this. “You’re going to let Bruce do what he needs to do-NO! Listen, listen, he’s going to patch you up and then we’ll go upstairs and you can conk out for however long your little spidery heart desires, but first we gotta do this.”

Peter shook his head, tears caught in his mask. “Please-Please Mr. Stark.”

“Can’t kid. Just breath, Bruce is good at this, you just gotta hold still for him.” Tony gave a nod to Bruce.

The scientist sighed, bracing the boy's leg once more he let the needle slip in between the muscle and flesh. The startled scream that left the teen was only made worse with how the table shook as he fought to stop him from continuing.

“Tony he needs to hold still.” Bruce gritted through clenched teeth as he held the boy's leg steady.

“Hey-Hey, Underoos’ come on, come on, gotta hold still bud. I know it hurts, but hey, hey it’ll be done in a minute and then you can yell at me for not putting in alloy shin guards.”

Peter was sobbing, shaking his head a bit at the man's reassuring tone. His leg hurt, hurt worse now than when he’d gotten hurt in the first place. “Please.” He whispered.

“Just sit tight kid, Banner go.”

Sighing Bruce did another stitch, holding the boy's leg firmly as he writhed, shouting out a heartwrenching sob. Bruce had to take steadying breaths as he slowly began to do one stitch at a time, ignoring the encouragement that Tony was giving to the suffering teen. He’d never heard Tony speak like this to someone, but he could tell, honestly tell that Tony meant what he was saying. Tony was scared, just as scared as the kid was or so Bruce thought, the man who liked to hide behind the faceplate of his armor was all the more human in this instance.

“Just breath, come on, just breath.”

The boy kept mumbling different versions of ‘please’ ‘stop’ ‘Mr. Stark’ “I can’t’ And with every utterance, Tony would reply with ‘I’m sorry’ ‘I can’t’ ‘Just hold on’ “Breathe’ ‘It’s almost over.’

Bruce swallowed reflexively when the boy's leg stopped kicking. “Tony?”

“He’s okay.” The weakness in the man’s voice had Bruce stating what he already knew.

“He passed out.”

“Yeah.”

Bruce nodded and continued with the stitches, as he worked he couldn’t help but repeat the man’s earlier words. “This isn’t your first rodeo.”

Tony snorted dryly, doing his best to clear the waiver in his own voice. “Wish it was, but no, kids gotten hurt before. With how he heals it’s not that much of an issue, other than the whole treatment part.”

“Right...No pain relief.”

Tony looked down to the masked face of the teen, he wanted to see for himself but pulling Peter’s mask off just to see the kids comatose face would be more damaging than helpful. “Yeah, sucks big time, poor kids got these abilities and of all the things to screw up its pain relief.”

Bruce snorted at Tony’s assumption of the boy's abilities choosing to screw up the teen's susceptibility to painkillers. “Yeah...Low blow.” 

Tony hummed, holding Peter tight against himself, it had been no use to try and keep the teen laying flat on the bed. Peter wouldn’t hold still and had tried to get up that way, but pulling him in tight against himself worked like a charm, but only because Peter refused to hurt him, even if it meant the pain might stop. The kid was incredibly strong and if Peter so wanted he could break Tony’s hand, arm, anything really, but Peter just sobbed into his chest so as not to risk hurting him. Tony felt all the more cruel for using the boy's good nature against him, but he tried to assure himself that it was for the kids own good. 

“Almost done.”

“God I hope so...Kid’ll wake up sooner or later and I’d rather have this messy bit done before he’s up again.”

Bruce chuckled. “He’s going to be sore, the wounds inflamed and these stitches aren’t something that will tickle even when they’re already in.” 

“Underoo’s here is strong, I’ll get him set up in my room and he can crash or watch movies...Whatever he wants. I’ll need to call his aunt though...”

“Right, to let her know he’s hurt.” 

Tony laughed, startling Bruce into looking up to glare. “What’s so funny?”

Tony shook his head dramatically, a broad smile on his face. “Yeah, I’m not telling his aunt that he just had his leg sewn back together, I’m going to tell her that he’s crashing here for the next few days because it’s spring break and why the hell wouldn’t he want to do that?”

Bruce shook his head. “Tony she has a right to know.”

“Kid’s been through enough, he’ll be healed before he even steps foot on the same street as her. No reason to make her worried or stress him out.”

Sighing when it became clear that Tony wasn’t going to budge, the scientist finished the last few stitches and nodded. Tying them off, he snipped the remaining cord and began swathing the wound clean of blood. Making sure the stitches were coated in an anti-bacterial cream, Bruce wrapped the boys leg up and scooted back with a nod. “Done.”

Tony smiled. “Great, thank you Bruce.”

Bruce smiled, he could see the genuine relief in Tony’s face, something so different than when he’d dealt with others. The kid had to mean a lot to the man for him to get this worked up. “Alright, doctors orders, no matter how effective his healing is, he needs to stay off of that for as long as he can. Any movement can put stress on the stitches and if he tears enough-”

“We’ll be right back here where we started.” Tony nodded. “Don’t worry, I know how to ground the kid.”

Rolling his eyes at how chipper that sentence made Tony, Bruce muttered. “He needs to stay hydrated, he lost blood, I don’t think anything concerning but best to just be safe about it. So keep him hydrated and...As you said his metabolism is fast, keep him fed. Other than that, just bed rest.”

Nodding, Tony looked down at the teen who was lax in his arms. Gently he laid the boy down on the medical bed. He glanced down at the wound, now bandaged Tony hadn’t had the opportunity to see what it really looked like. A part of him was grateful for that, it was bad enough to see how much it hurt Peter.

“Tony?”

Jerking out of his own thoughts, the mechanic cleared his throat. “Right, I’m gonna go see if I can’t convince the Capsicle to carry the little spider to bed for me. My back isn’t a spry as that fossil is.”

Bruce smirked not bothering to comment on Tony’s penchant for calling Steve a fossil. “I’ll stay here with him, clean up a bit.”

“Thanks.” Tony swiftly made his way out of the room, Bruce leaned forward, watching as Tony retreated down the hallway. Shaking his head, the scientist patted the boy's naked shin.

“I don’t know who you are kid, but you’re good for him.”

Rolling his chair away from the medical bed, Bruce began to clean up the used supplies. He glanced at the vial of Oxycodone that he hadn’t used, frowning at it. “Friday do you have records for Spider-man? Blood or tissue samples?”

“Yes Dr. Banner, I have blood samples, but they are encoded as the boss doesn’t want anyone messing with them.”

Humming Bruce asked. “Can you send me the data only? No name or dates.”

“I believe so Dr. Banner...What are you looking for?”

Bruce turned to the nearby terminal, watching as the data began to compile. “I’m going to see about making something to help Spider-man, kid deserves something to help with pain. With our line of work, stitches are on the tame side.”

“Data is complete.”

“Thank you, Friday.” Bruce sat before the terminal and hummed, scrolling through the data. His eyes widening when he saw the genetic anomalies, whatever had happened to this kid had re-written his DNA. Bruce could see partitions that he thought might be animal in nature, but he’d have to look them up to be sure. Besides that, Bruce was sure of one thing.

“You’re something else Spider-man.” Bruce glanced over his shoulder to the passed out teen. “I can see why you sparked Tony’s interest.” He chuckled before turning back around to the data. “Alright...So what have we got here?”

  
  



	3. Security Breach-Rhodey

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rhodey decides it's time that he talks with Spider-man so he hunts the kid down in order to have a heart to heart with him about the dangers of being a superhero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Another chapter, thank you so much to all of you who have written comments and Kudo's it means a lot to me. Glad to know you're all enjoying it.

Like many Rhodey had heard of Spider-man by now, the kid's appearance in the battle at the airport had been eye-opening to say nothing else. He’d chastized Tony about the kid's apparent age, from what he’d heard in the kids voice he was young. Tony didn’t seem to care one way or another, but Rhodey did. As much good it had done him, he’d tried to find out what he could about the kid, about Spider-man as a whole. There was little other than viral videos of the hero swooping to save people. 

When he’d heard of Steve’s meeting with the kid in Tony’s lab he tried dropping in unannounced, all he got was some friendly banter from Tony and a snarky attitude when the man made eyes at him as if he knew the real reason Rhodey was there. Tony never said as much, the bastard that he was wanted Rhodey to admit to it. That was one thing Rhodey didn’t intend to do, so they parted ways, repeated attempts were met with likewise failure.

Hearing of Bruce’s impromptu meeting with the kid when his leg bone was damn near on display had given him all the more reason to track the kid down and have a heart to heart with him. This wasn’t a game, no matter how much Tony might treat it as one. Rhodey looked at security footage through Friday, trying to see if there was some pattern to the kid's movements. After a bit of digging Rhodey had narrowed down an area in the compound, he felt secure as a point to meet up with the kid.

That’s how Rhodey came to be standing in that particular section of the compound, alone, waiting for Spider-man. The lone catwalk on this side of the hanger was secluded and dark in the contrasting wide open space of the rest of the building. Why the kid chose to enter way out here some days and not closer to Tony’s lab was beyond him. Didn’t much matter if Rhodey got right down to it, he was content to wait around. If his and Friday’s calculations were correct the kid had a higher than average possibility of entering the hanger that day. So he waited.

Rhodey stood there, feeling all the more like an idiot as time passed. He sighed, a good thirty minutes had elapsed and it was nearing the end of what he believed to be an ‘acceptable’ arrival by the teen. Prepared to retreat and try again on another day, Colonel Rhodes was surprised by a sudden noise. His head went both directions, finding no source for the strange noise. A grating sound reached his ears, this time with a clear direction. Up. Tilting his head back, Rhodey’s eyes widened, he’d found Spider-man. 

The fact that the teen was presently scaling down from the skylight in the hanger by a line of his webbing was baffling enough but the fact that the teen seemed ignorant to his presence just backed up why Rhodey was there. He wasn’t hidden, the kid should have seen him and he hadn’t which just proved the kid wasn’t aware enough to be doing what he was doing. Namely, playing hero. 

“Hey, kid.” Rhodey called out as the teen neared the level of the catwalk.

Peter flailed, having assumed he was alone, he’d been caught up listening to what Karen had to say about the route he’d tried to plan for tomorrows patrol. Hearing someone call out to him out of the blue had Peter twisting around in surprise while simultaneously releasing the web he was holding onto. Peter screamed as he fell from the shock, crunching onto the hard floor of the catwalk like a sack of bricks.

“Shit!” Rhodey ran to the kid, fearing he’d really screwed up by startling the kid as he had. He hadn’t even thought about the possibility of the boy being startled by him trying to get his attention. “Hey, kid, you alright?” Kneeling down, Rhodey frowned when the boy groaned a few times before twisting his head to stare up at him. The lenses of the boy's masks were only half open, and if that was any indication of how the teen beneath it was doing then Rhodey had a good suspicion of what was wrong. He’d just managed to give Spider-man a concussion, Tony was going to kill him.

“Crap, sorry kid I didn’t think I could actually sneak up on you, from what Tony-” Rhodey shook his head, it didn’t matter what Tony had said. The fact was that he had a downed teenager in front of him because he’d opened his mouth while the boy was repelling from the roof of a hanger. 

Peter rolled onto his side, his head aching from where it had bounced off of the floor. His ears rang and the tinny sound of Karen asking if he was alright was only made worse by the loud voice of someone else asking the same question. “Shut up.”

Rhodey blinked, surprised to be told to shut up by the teen. Then again Rhodey had to remind himself, he was the reason the kid was cradling his head. “Right...Sorry.” He frowned, this was not how he anticipated their first meeting going. 

Rhodey stayed silent, as much as he wanted to question how the kid was doing or ask if he needed him to call Tony or at worse Bruce, he held his tongue. The kid had made it clear that he didn’t want him talking, whether that was because he was the reason the kid had fallen or because his head hurt Rhodey didn’t know. It took a few minutes, but slowly bit by bit the teen began to untense his body which had curled into itself. As the boy's limbs began to go lax, shrugging out into a more natural form, Rhodey saw the lenses in the mask shift. Widening a bit right before the teens head shifted to look at him fully.

“Colonel Rhodes?”

Smiling Rhodey nodded. “Sorry kid, I-I didn’t think things through when I startled you like that.”

Peter slowly sat up his head hurt and the rest of his body kinda ached, a fading sensation from landing on the hard ground. Nodding at the man’s apology, Peter asked. “Di-Did you need something?”

Rhodey sighed, now he felt all the more a jackass. “No, I mean other than I wanted to be formally introduced to you.” He chuckled. “I hadn’t planned on doing things this way.”

Peter smiled beneath his mask. “That’s okay Colonel Rhodes.” Peter canted his head back to see how far he’d fallen, not bad. “I’ve had worse.” Looking back down Peter caught the man’s frown. “What’s wrong?” The teen tilted his head.

Sighing Rhodey admitted. “I-I came to introduce myself, but I...I also wanted to talk to you about what you’re doing.”

“Doing?”

Rhodey hummed. “Yeah, this...Being Spider-man thing. It’s dangerous.”

Peter blinked a few times back at the man who was staring at him as if he was giving him one of those serious adult conversation talks that May always threatened to have with him. “Oh.” It was a lame reply to something as heavy as the man trying to detour him from being Spider-man, but it was all Peter had. 

“Look, kid, I get it, the idea of being a superhero must sound great...Saving people and being in the limelight...But it’s not all sunshine and daisies. I don’t know what Tony might have told you, but things get heated, they get serious and people-People get hurt or worse. Sometimes people die.” Rhodey stared back at the masked kid, hoping that the teen was really listening to him. The masks lenses were open, staring straight back at them and they blinked from time to time so Rhodey knew the kid was in there. When the kid didn’t respond right away, Rhodey frowned. “Do you understand?”

Peter looked down into his lap, he’d moved to sit in a cross-legged pose and as he sat there he wondered if everyone was going to assume the same of him. Mr. Stark had at first, but he’d changed his mind after everything with Toomes. He’d really taken into consideration what he’d said to him back in his bedroom. Fighting for the little guy.

“Sometimes...People get hurt when your powerless to do anything.” Peter muttered. “And other times...You have power and you don’t use it cause you’re scared.” Peter looked up. “Which is worse? Knowing you could have stopped it but didn’t? Or knowing there was nothing you could have done because you were just normal?”

Rhodey blinked, his mouth agape a bit. Stunned, by the boy's calm retort to his own attempts to dissuade the boy from continuing as Spider-man. “Kid- Look-”

“I’m not normal.” Peter calmly stated. “Haven’t been for a while now and I made that mistake, I tried to be normal when I’m not.” Peter shook his head. “And I could have stopped it, but I didn’t because I was scared, scared of using these powers, of being caught...He died. He died because I was powerful and too afraid to do anything to stop it. I would do anything. Anything! To go back and fix that, to do the things I know I can do, that I could do back then but was instead trying to ignore in order to play pretend. To be normal.” Peter raised his voice a bit more, the longer he talked about this. About Ben, it riled him up, because people didn’t get it. “I’m not normal! And if I had just dealt with that back then, before it was too late...Then maybe I wouldn’t have to think about all the things I could have changed now that it’s too late.” Peter held the man’s gaze a moment longer. “I didn’t want to be a superhero Colonel Rhodes, I wanted to be normal but I became one because playing pretend got people hurt… Someone I love-I loved a lot...They died because I was too scared to be what I am now.” Peter got to his feet, the Colonel following him. They stood toe to toe and in a clear voice, Peter replied. “I’m Spider-man Colonel Rhodes because someone needs help somewhere and I can give it, I can help. So I’m going to, I’m going to help as many people as I can because I’m not normal and...That’s okay.” Holding out his hand to the man, Peter waited.

Rhodey was in shock, listening to the well-spoken boy who had just blown his mind by not being an egotistical brat who had a god complex. This kid was so different then from where Tony came from, seeing the boy outstretch his hand Rhodey took it and shook hands with the teen.

“I’m Spider-man.”

Rhodey smirked. “Colonel Rhodes is what a lot of people jabber on with, but just call me Rhodey. Nice to meet you Spider-man.”

Peter nodded. “Back at you...Sir.”

Chuckling at the boy's sudden formality, Rhodey let their hands fall apart before stating in a sincere tone. “Look, I’m-I’m sorry for startling you, hope you’re not actually hurt because of that...I-I should also apologize for how I behaved...A lot of people, well a lot of people get this idea in their head that being a hero is some great honor.” Rhodey sighed, reaching behind his head to scratch at the back of his neck. “I thought you might be like them,  and that’s on me. I assumed why you were doing what you’re doing.” Rhodey shook his head, he was going to have a lot to think about when it came to the kid, but that was for later. “But a little advice kid. Take some of that weight off of your shoulders, we all have things we wish we would have done. Things that now we know we could or might have been able to change, there’s no use living in those shadows kid. You’re here and you’re making a difference, that’s more than a lot of people do.”

Peter nodded his head, silently relieved that the man wasn’t going to try and continue to talk him out of being Spider-man, it’s not like there was anything the man could say that would change his mind...It’s just that it hurt when people underestimated him or...Treated him like a kid. Letting out a long breath, Peter gave a small wave. “It was nice talking to you Colonel Rhodes, I gotta get going now...I’m going to be late and Mr. Stark hates that.”

Chuckling at the boys apparent fear of upsetting Tony, Rhodey dismissed the kid. “Alright, better get going then.”

Peter gave another way and took off running down the catwalk, ducking into a door that led into the main compound. Shaking his head as he watched the boy depart, Rhodey glared when he heard the tale tell ringtone of his friend. Pulling his phone from his pocket, Rhodey answered.

“Yeah?”

“Told you he was going to prove you wrong.”

“I really hate you sometimes Tony.” Rhodey glanced around before spotting one of the camera’s that he figured Tony had been spying through. He flipped him off, only to hear some chuckling. Yeah, he was watching.

“Yeah, but you love the kid, don’t you?”

Rhodey didn’t have to be psychic to know that Tony was laughing in this workshop when he hung up on him and stormed away.

 


	4. Security Breach-Clint

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Clint finally gets his chance to meet the elusive teen who's been prowling around the compound, they have an interesting conversation over the span of two pudding cups.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really really love this chapter, it's just fun and cute. I hope you all enjoy it.

Security Breach-Clint

 

It was the middle of the night, everyone had already retired to their own rooms when Clint wandered out of his to get something to drink. He had plans to video chat with Laura after she put the kids to bed, nothing could make video calling pointless by having a horde of screaming kids in the background. So with some time to spare, the archer made his way down the hallway of the compound to the common room and the attached kitchen.

He made it two steps into the room before his own instincts kicked in and he froze, something wasn’t right. Looking slowly around the darkened room, Clint’s brow furrowed when it didn’t come to him right away. Then in an instant, his eyes locked onto the movement, his first instinct was that it was Natasha or maybe Bruce as they were the most likely culprits of late night wanderings. But it was neither. There sitting on the kitchen counter, legs kicking back and forth like a little kid was Spider-man. The elusive kid that everyone had been talking about since the rogues had returned to the compound, and here he was, in the middle of the night...Sitting on the counter with-A juice box?

Take a further step into the room, got a masked head to turn, Clint couldn’t help but laugh at the sight the teen made. Mask kinked up to lay over his nose as he sucked on the bendy straw in that was stabbed into the juice box. The teen spat out the straw in an instant, swallowing.

“Umm...Hi?”

Clint chuckled. “Hey, kid.”

Peter looked around a bit, it was only him. He’d heard a heartbeat coming this way but had stupidly thought it was just Mr. Stark coming to tell him that his break was over. It was not Mr. Stark. Staring back at the archer that he knew to be Hawkeye, Peter found himself at a loss of words.

“So...Midnight snack?” Clint waved a hand at the boy's juice box.

Peter looked down at the small carton in his hand. “Yeah...”

Nodding Clint made his way around the island that the boy was perched on to the fridge where he dug around a moment before pulling out a pudding cup, walking to a nearby drawer he got a spoon. Tearing off the lid he scooped out the first bite and hummed as he analyzed the teen who was once more sipping from the juice box like a little kid. 

“So...What are you doing here this late? Tony said you didn’t stay here.”

“Oh..I don’t.” Peter shook his head. “Normally I’d have been home ages ago, but my aunt’s got a double shift and...Mr. Stark said he’d keep an eye on me and to tell you the truth I don’t know if that was him offering or my aunt May making him swear to keep me out of trouble because he’s maybe a little bit scared of her.”

Clint laughed around a spoonful of pudding. “No shit?”

Peter shrugged. “He does that...Voice thing.”

“Voice thing?” Clint frowned. “What voice?”

“The one he uses when he’s trying to make people think he’s agreeing with them when he’s really not paying attention or...Just doesn’t care.”

Clint smirked, the kid was pretty spot on if he’d caught onto the many ways Tony Stark could disrespect someone without even trying. “So he did that with your aunt?”

“Well he tried, she didn’t fall for it and whatever she said had to be pretty bad because Mr. Stark was nothing but polite afterward...I tried to warn him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Never does.”

Peter nodded as if Hawkeye was agreeing with him on this particular case and not on principal alone. “So what are you doing up Mr. Hawkeye?”

Clint choked on his bite of pudding, coughing a bit he held out a hand when the boy frantically asked if he was okay. Coughing a bit to clear his airway, Clint smiled. “What did you just call me?”

Peter swallowed. “Umm...Mr. Hawkeye sir?” as if adding the ‘sir’ was the thing that had been wrong.

Clint gave a sudden bark of laughter, shaking his head. “No...Okay, no.” He shook his head. “Just Clint, kid, Clint.”

“Oh...Are you sure? That seems really forward and I know that Captain Rogers said the same thing and all, but it's like really weirding me out that you guys are so chill about everything.”

Clint smiled as the boy ranted about the appropriateness of using their names, it was funny to just listen to the kid work himself up. So Clint sat back and enjoyed the show, eating his pudding. When he was scraping the bottom of the cup and the boy had apparently worked himself through whatever mental trauma the usage of their names might have brought him. Clint threw the cup away and addressed the teen who was once more sucking on the juice box.

“Kid, I think you’ll find out soon enough, the longer you’re around here that is...We’re not an uptight bunch. Can’t afford to be with all we’ve been through, what might come ahead. We’re friends or mostly friends.” He joked. “We’ve been through a lot, formality went out the window a hell of a long time ago.”

“Oh...Right, Yeah that makes sense, I mean you guys have been together for years now...I guess it’s just awkward because I don’t know you and it feels like...Like I’m taking advantage of knowing Mr. Stark to know you? I don’t know.” Peter shook his head, frustrated with how his brain was working.

Clint shook his own head, going back to the fridge he dug around a bit. Took out two more pudding cups, went back to the drawer and got a spoon and walked over. He offered a pudding cup and spoon to the kid, Spider-man took them seemingly surprised by the offering. Clint backed off to lean against the cabinets directly across from the teen, peeling off the lid to his second pudding cup.

“So...Tell me about yourself?”

Peter took a bite of pudding, humming as he chewed and swallowed. “Mr. Stark doesn’t want me giving as he calls it ‘any information you think a super spy could use against you’.” Peter used quotation marks as he said it all while one hand held the spoon and the other the pudding cup. “Then he might have said who fell under the title super spy.” The boy ducked his head a bit like a silent apology.

Clint laughed. “Alright, fair enough. But just so we’re clear, it’s Natasha you need to worry about.”

“Oh...Okay.” Peter nodded. “Thanks for the heads up.”

“Sure...Also, she won't give you pudding cups.” Clint smirked.

Peter laughed, taking another bite of pudding before asking. “Is this a bribe for Intel?”

Clint smiled. “You’re good kid, but no.” Clint shook his head. “I just like raiding the fridge at night and stealing Steve’s pudding.”

Peter froze. “What?”

Clint waved a hand at the scared teen. “Chill out kid, he won’t be mad...Half the fun is seeing how perplexed he is when there’s considerably less in the fridge than the last time he looked. I’m not the only one who pilfers a few FYI, so don’t fret. We’re all in on it, part of the game, we don’t give each other away to him so he’s frustrated continuously.”

Peter snickered. “That’s mean.”

Clint raised his pudding cup. “But it gets us pudding and entertainment.”

“Still mean.” Peter replied before taking a bite of pudding. “But it is good pudding.”

“Ha. Knew you’d be on our side.”

The pair stayed that way, eating their puddings in the small dome of companionable silence they’d created around each other. Peter finished his pudding first and without moving an inch tossed the empty cup into the garbage can on the other side of the kitchen. Clint whistled.

“Some arm you got...Couldn’t even see that far but I heard it go in.”

Peter laughed. “Yeah...I can see in the dark.”

“You can?” This was news to Clint, but then again it wasn’t like they had a whole bunch of intel on the kid.

“Yep.” Peter nodded. “It’s pretty neat, I mean I can sneak around at night and no one else can know I’m there.”

“Yeah, I bet...What else can you do?” Clint was genuinely curious about the kid's abilities if not the kid himself, that was probably why he was put out when Spider-man sat up straight all of the sudden and stated.

“I wasn’t...Come on Mr. Stark...No.” 

Clint smirked as he watched the boy talk with Tony, his guess was through the mask rather than an earpiece, he’d heard about the kid's suit having an AI.

“Of course not Mr. Stark, I haven’t said anything...Well if you were listening why are you asking me?!”

Clint chuckled as Tony abused the poor boy's psyche, making him second guess himself. 

“No...Yes, alright I’ll be right there...Huh? Oh...Yeah, sure thing Mr. Stark.” Shaking his head Peter looked up to see the amused gaze of Hawkeye. Sighing Peter announced. “I have to go.”

Clint chuckled. “Sounds like it, see ya around, kid.” Clint gave a wave as he headed back towards his bedroom. Smirking when he heard the teen ask himself. “What kind of pudding does Mr. Stark even like? Karen help.”

He was going to have a lot of fun telling Laura about his midnight rendezvous with the elusive Spider-man.

 


	5. Security Breach-Natasha

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Natasha is jealous, she hasn't gotten a chance to talk with the elusive little spider invading the compound. Clint even went behind her back and had pudding with him, traitor that he is. It is far past time that she got a chance to speak with the kid, so she goes and finds him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go folks, Natasha, the final chapter before it's Peter's turn to meet everyone. There is an endnote that you all should read. Happy reading!

Natasha was jealous, Clint had gotten to talk with the little spider that had been lurking the halls before her. What was worse was that he stole pudding with the kid and didn’t have the decency to bring her any. Now the spy was on a mission, she was going to track down the kid and have a spider to spider conversation. All she needed to do was lie in wait for her prey to come to her. She’d already talked with Rhodey who had found out where the kid liked to come inside to reach the compound, talked with Clint about the filched pudding and juice box garnered her another clue of the boy's motivations. 

Best place in her mind was in the corridor from one of those things to the other, a straight path to what the little spider might very well be going for as soon as he arrived. Bruce had mentioned the kid needing to eat a lot, apparently, he was like Steve in that regard. Made sense as to why Stark had started upping the ante when it came to groceries if the kid was going to eat like Steve and they already had a Steve...Groceries were a must with two super metabolized people. 

Setting up shop in the hallway that led from the hanger to the main compound, Natasha leaned against the wall. Pulling a knife out she began to manicure her nails, scraping out the dirt that had accumulated from her ventures outside that day. She hummed to herself for a minute or so, looking at her nails. Smirking she cut off her humming and stated in a pleased tone.

“You’re good kid, but not that good.” She looked up to see the teen clinging to the ceiling, the teen looked down at her.

“How’d you know?” The boy hissed.

Natasha chuckled kindly at the boy as he let his legs dangle first before dropping into a crouch onto the floor. Standing back up the boy backed up to lean against the glass windows that took up the majority of the other side of the hallway.

“You’ve got a shadow kid.” She pointed with her knife down to their shadows.

Peter looked down saw that he was indeed casting off a pretty decent shadow and then huffed. “Crap.”

Chuckling Natasha shook her head. “It’s alright malen'kiy pauk.”

Peter’s head jerked upright. “What?”

Natasha smirked. “Nothing.”

“Umm...That was definitely not English, I know because I like speak English and that...Was not English.”

“What was it then?”

“Umm...Oh, thanks, Karen.”

Natasha frowned, only to give a dower look when the boy replied. “Karen said it’s Russian, that’s cool. Where’d you learn that?’

Natasha was surprised that the boy hadn’t reacted to just what she’d said but perhaps the AI hadn’t felt the need to elaborate further beyond identifying the language. “Someplace sometime.”

“O-Oh Okay.” Peter nodded. “That sounds like a really vague-Riddle thing like that’s cool and all but if you don’t want to say which is totally fine...Why not just say that? Like, just say I don’t want to talk about it-”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

Peter froze. Nodded and replied. “Cool-Cool...So, uh...Thanks for pointing out my shadow and all, I’m just going to get going.” Peter turned to leave only to jump back when a blade was tossed or rather thrust at the window. It gave a small spiral crack as the blade point embedded in the glass.

“Hey!” Peter whipped around. “You could hurt someone-”

“That’s the point.” She muttered as she crossed the hallway to snatch her knife back up, flipping it in her hand. “So...What’s the deal...Spider-man? Where’d you come from?”

“Um...Oh, Queens.”

Natasha blinked. “Queens.” She deadpanned. “That’s it?”

Peter nodded. “Why? Was that not good enough?”

Natasha sighed. “What exactly is it that you want out of this?” She waved a hand at the boy, top to bottom.

Peter looked down at himself and then back up at the woman. “Oh...You mean why I’m Spider-man?” She hummed. “Oh, well that’s easy. I just want to protect the little guy.”

“The little guy.” She mused aloud. “Why?”

Peter swallowed. “Um...Cause not many people do? I mean the cops do their best, I mean they have it rough what with how big the city is and all but they’re just not equipped for things...For the kind of bad stuff that’s really going on you know?” Peter shook his head. “I mean when I first started doing stuff, I was just rescuing cats out of trees and stopping car thefts and then suddenly I was cracking down on alien weapons...That is not a slow incline in work.”

Natasha chuckled at the boy’s increased stress.

“But of course I wasn’t going to stop because there were so many people that were getting hurt by all of it and I knew I could do something...So I did.” Peter shrugged. “And I guess, I’ll just keep doing it...Someone has to look out for them after all.”

“And who better than you right?” Natasha boasted.

Peter snorted. “I’m a nobody, but I help, that’s really all we try to do right? Help.”

Natasha frowned a bit at the boy's simple deduction of why the Avengers worked as they did. “Something like that...So you met Tony and he dragged you out to Germany, and you just said sure?”

Peter snorted. “He wouldn’t take my excuse.”

“Which was?”

“I had homework.”

Natasha laughed, as excuses go that had to be the most adorable one she’d ever heard. “H-How old are you?”

“Oh well, I’m fifteen.”

The woman’s smile disappeared. “What?”

“Fifteen...Why?”

Natasha’s features took on a firmer look. “And I’m guessing Tony knew that.”

“Well...Yeah? I mean I think so, why wouldn’t he?”

Nodding Natasha made a mental note to go and see Tony about that little lapse in information.

“Are you okay?”

Natasha smiled back at the teen. “Fine.”

Peter didn’t believe her for an instant and given what they’d just talked about Peter had a feeling he knew what it was about. “I was doing this before Mr. Stark took me to Germany.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

Peter shrugged. “I’d be dead...I mean, I’m pretty sure that I’d be dead...No..Scrap that I would be.” Peter nodded. “Mr. Stark saved my life when I went after an arms dealer, I would have drowned.”

Natasha took a sharp breath at that, nodding. “Y-You wouldn’t have been involved with that if Tony-”

“I was doing it before! Before I even knew him.” Peter replied hotly.

“You said you were rescuing cats out of trees.” Natasha pointed a sharp finger at the teen. “That's a big difference kid.”

Peter folded his arms over his chest. “Yeah and then the bank robbery happened and I wasn’t going to just walk away, couldn’t.” The teen enforced. “And that led me to the arms dealer and Mr. Stark told me to back off, to stop. I didn’t. I continued even after he took this suit back.” Peter waved at himself. “And I nearly died because suit or no suit I wasn’t going to let those weapons hurt anyone else. So you can’t blame Mr. Stark for me being Spider-man, cause that’s not his fault. It’s mine.”

Natasha tilted her head. “How so?”

Peter shook his head. “I can’t talk about that.”

“But it wasn’t Tony’s fault?”

Peter shook his head. “No one knows about it...I mean, Mr. Stark knows but he’s like the only one...It was an accident, sorta and...It’s just best if no one knows.”

Nodding Natasha replied. “Alright kid, I get you.”

“Please don’t be mad at Mr. Stark.”

Natasha smirked at the teens pleading tone. “Why are you so worried about him? He’s Iron man isn’t he?”

“Well yeah...But I don’t think he’s wearing a suit right now and that knife looks dangerous.”

Natasha looked down at the blade still in her hand, looking back up at the teen she questioned. “Would you stop me?” Peter nodded. “How?” Natasha had anticipated a swing, a kick, she did not expect to suddenly have her hand glued to the glass window. Her mouth came open in shock as she struggled against the solid surface now encasing her arm.

“Sorry about that...Um, Mrs. Black widow.”

Natasha stopped her struggling, whatever his web was made out of she wasn’t breaking with her bare hands. If Steve couldn’t do it, she couldn’t. Smirking at the teen who was now apologizing for having followed through with what he’d said he’d do, Natasha replied. “Don’t apologize.”

“Oh?”

She nodded. “You saw a threat and you neutralized it, passively too.” She commended him. “If you start apologizing or feeling bad for the person who’s giving you some sob story while attempting to hurt someone...Then you’re liable for what happens. Don’t let your heart be a weakness kid, use it as a shield. Protect those you care about the ones you’re fighting for, don’t lose sight of that.”

Peter nodded, that kinda made a lot of sense. “Umm...So are you not going to attack Mr. Stark?”

“I’m not going to attack Tony.” Her lips quirked up.

“Oh good.” Peter nodded. “So um...I should probably get you out of that, can you like hold still?”

She nodded, watching as the boy pulled something from the small clips around his waist, coming forward he opened a vial and doused the webbing in it, it dissolved around her hand allowing her to pull herself free from the remaining web. Rotating her wrist a bit, she looked curiously at the boy who was storing the used vial. He straightened out a moment later to stare back at her.

“You did good kid.”

“Thanks.” The boy's voice was bashful.

Twisting about Natasha headed down the hallway back towards the kitchen. “Come on.”

“Huh?” Peter trailed after the woman.

“I need a snack and so do you...Then we’re going to figure out when I can whip you into shape.”

“Umm...Mrs. Black widow, I don’t know-”

“It wasn’t a question.”

Peter nodded his head, catching up with her he did bother to ask. “Are you sure Captain America won’t mind us stealing more pudding?”

“Oh he’ll mind malen'kiy pauk, but he won’t do anything about it.” She twirled the knife, catching Peter’s attention.

“Are you going to get in a knife fight over pudding?!”

“Maybe...Why? You wanna stop me?” She threw over her shoulder with a grin.

“...Well, I mean, yes...That sounds dangerous, especially when it’s over pudding but also I don’t think he’s even here so I don’t think you’ll get that fight if that’s what you wanted.”

Natasha laughed. “How do you know if Steve’s here or not?”

“His heartbeat. It’s different from everyone else's...Well, everyone's heartbeat is a bit different, his and Dr. Banners stand out the most.”

Natasha paused, twisting around to frown at the boy. “You can hear our heartbeats?”

Peter nodded. “Yeah.” Then in a bashful tone, the boy stated. “You’re just...Ticked.”

“Ticked?” Despite her better judgment, Natasha looked down at her own chest as if she would be able to see her own heart.

“Sped up for a split second, a tick.”

Natasha hummed, curious. “And you can’t hear Steve’s heartbeat...How far can you hear?”

Peter swallowed. “Mr. Stark doesn’t want me answering that question, but...I can tell he’s not here-here.” He waved at their current location.

Nodding, taking what information she could get, Natasha twisted back around. “Well come on then, all the more reason to steal his pudding.”

Peter smiled beneath his mask. “O-Okay,  yeah.”

“So...Spider-man, are you a morning or night person?”

“Um, I guess both? I mean I’m up at all hours and so it’s not a big deal and why are you asking me this?” They came into the kitchen and when he saw Black widow raiding the fridge Peter took it as a sign and hopped up onto the counter.

Natasha handed the teen a pudding cup, entranced to watch as he pulled up his mask halfway to start eating it. “So I know the best time to try and find you for training.”

Peter paused. “Training?”

She hummed around her own bite of pudding. “Someone’s gotta teach you how to be a spy and Tony’s not it.”

Peter nodded. “Oh...Okay, well, thank you that’s really nice of you but I’m not sure if I’m cut out to be a spy-”

“You can hear people’s heartbeats, stick to walls and shoot webbing that incapacitates your enemies. Trust me, kid, you’ll go far.”

Peter swallowed. “Okay.”

Natasha leaned forward a bit, a sly grin on her face. “Besides, sometimes me and Clint need help distracting Steve when a new cargo comes in.”

“Car-” Peter looked down at his pudding cup and then back to the woman. She winked. Peter laughed. “Alright...But I still don’t think I’m cut out for being a spy.”

Natasha waved the kid off, she’d make sure he knew the inner workings of how to keep himself hidden. From one spider to another she needed to make sure people remembered not to mess with them, plus it might just help keep the cute kid alive. “Finish your pudding malen'kiy pauk, afterward you’re going to show me how fast you can run.”

Peter swallowed another bite of pudding. “Run? Why run?”

Natasha grinned, pointing over the teen's shoulder, Peter twisted about only to find Hawkeye standing there with his bow and quiver.

“We’re gonna see just how fast you are kid.”

Peter sighed, he didn’t like the looks of that, but he still quipped. “Do I get more pudding when this is over with?”

“Sure.” Natasha placated the teen as Clint laughed at the boy's expense.

“I’ll even throw in a juice box.” Clint chuckled as he made his way through.

Peter watched the man disappear before turning his attention to Natasha. “Arrows aren’t really...Soft.” He hopped off of the counter, pulling his mask back down and followed after her as she headed after the archer.

Natasha smiled. “Don’t let him hit you then.”

“Oh...Yeah, great advice but like, the level of success to failure ratio is like horrible there...I mean, I’m not arrow proof, my suit isn’t...At least I don’t think it is. Karen, are you arrow proof?” Natasha smiled as the boy nodded. “Yeah, no, I am not arrow proof.” Natasha came forward twisting the boy around and shoving him down the hall. 

“Come on malen'kiy pauk don’t be afraid, think of Clint as a big bad fly.”

“I don’t like where this metaphor is going Mrs. Black Widow.”

Smiling she leaned in close. “It’s Natasha, Spider-man, or just Nat.”

“Oh, great, the first name thing again...Great, like so happy that you want me to use your name and all but am I really going to be dodging arrows shot by Hawkeye?”

“You really are.”

Peter gave a jerky nod. “Karen...Um, send a message to Mr. Stark.” Natasha frowned, the boy was backing out. “Tell him I’m going to be a little late.”

Natasha smiled as she put her arm around the boy. “So Spider-man, how many arrows do you think you could steal from Clint?”

“Steal?” Peter’s head jerked to stare at her as they shuffled down the hallway together. “What like the pudding?”

“Exactly like the pudding.”

Peter twisted sharply all the way around suddenly excited. “Can I steal them before he shoots them?”

“Fair game.” She winked.

“Awesome!”

Natasha laughed as the boy exuberantly fell in line now that he was no longer just the prey. Clint was going to kill her, but it would be so worth it to see the man’s face when the kid stole his arrows. Besides what kind of role model would she be if she didn’t teach the kid how to piss off the enemy?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, real quick note...The last chapter is LONG. I know this is a 5+1 thing but I am throwing around the idea of separating the last chapter into two chapters even though that technically voids the 5+1 thing. The chapter is 21k...So really it's up to you guys, I normally cap out a chapter at 10k but it's up to you. Do you want it all in one massive chapter or separated into two?


	6. Security Breach-Peter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Avengers finally discover who's beneath the mask, shame that it's under such circumstances. Tony nearly has a heart attack cause of Peter and Peter...Well, he's grounded.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, so due to a few responses all in favor of one giant chapter, this is the one giant chapter XD. It's also the end of this story, I want to thank all you who have left Kudo's and comments and I hope you enjoy the last chapter.

The team had been chilling out on the couch together, arguing about Netflix and teasing Steve about random things that he just didn’t ‘get’, they loved using the age card against him. It was as they were happily bantering that Friday suddenly spoke out.

“Dr. Banner your presence is requested in the medbay, patient incoming.”

“What?” Bruce looked to everyone, all the Avengers who were in the area were present with him. Except one.  “Friday where’s Tony?”

“Boss is coming to meet you at the medbay.”

“Is he hurt?” Steve stood at once.

“Negative, Boss is not the patient. The patient is arriving in approximately 3 minutes and 45 seconds.”

“Who? Friday we’re all here so-” Clint never got to finish his sentence as Tony’s voice came over the speakers.

“Get your ass down here Banner!”

Bruce ran for the door, the others following him. Eager to know what was going on, who was in need of the man’s help. A hallway and a steep set of steps the group came to the small opening between the two halves of the compound. Tony was standing on the other side of the glass doors, he twisted when they came barging through.

“Tony, what’s going on?” Bruce stammered. “What’s-”

“It’s the kid.”

They all froze. 

“Spider-man?” Bruce rasped.

Tony nodded. “His suit...Red screened, emergency evac code.”

“What’s that mean?” Clint asked in a confused tone.

Tony looked back. “Means one of my suits just went out there to find that kid and is bringing him here because he is hurt. Not a little hurt, a lot of hurt. I didn’t get any system warnings and I am going to kill that kid for hacking that suit again.” Tony shook his head. “Jesus Christ.” He ran his hand through his ear before it slid to his ear. “Yes Friday, right here.”

The sounds of repulsors were heard, getting closer by the second. “Friday’s what’s his stats?” They watched as Tony turned red a bit. “Use the suit! Forget Karen. Use the Mach-Okay...Okay, yes. Send it through.”

“Tony.” Steve took a step forward and set a hand on the man’s shoulder, Tony twisted and leveled a hand at him. “Don’t...Don’t.”

Steve nodded, their gaze going upward as the Iron man suit came in sight, coming to a slowed speed before landing.

“What? Friday, that doesn’t-A fire?”

The group tensed as Tony shouted. “Open.” He waved his hand and the suit fell apart, the masked teens limp body falling forward and right into Tony’s arms.

“Shit!”

“Lay him down Tony.” Bruce helped situate the boy as he called out. “Clint get a gurney.”

“NO!” Tony shouted stilling them all, a gurney took time pleadingly he looked to. “Steve.”

Steve nodded, rushing over he scooped up the kid and ran, the others hot on his tail as he came into the medbay where Bruce slapped on a pair of gloves as Steve set the boy down. Twisting about as he spoke, Bruce called out to Tony. “Tony I know you don’t want us to but his mas-” Bruce’s eyes widened when he watched Tony rip the offending cloth off of the boys head himself. Swallowing at the haste done, he nodded, coming forth to take in the soot-covered features of a young boy. Bruce's eyes latched onto something straight away and it wasn’t good, lunging forward, he grabbed an oxygen mask and held it over the boy's mouth. “Hold this.” Tony did as asked as Bruce went around gathering things. 

“Friday stats!”

“Oxygen saturation is at 52%.”

They all heard Bruce’s muffled ‘shit’ “Heart rate is standing at 150 beats per minute.” Bruce slammed a drawer shut, going to a nearby one in his haste.

“Bruce?”

Bruce shook his head as he grabbed a cannister of something and ran back, fiddling with what looked like an empty saline pack he screwed the cannister in and looked to Tony. “Okay, we need to get this mask securely on his face this is a breathing therapy. He doesn’t have enough Oxygen, we gotta fix that.”

Tony nodded, lifting Peter up a bit and holding the kids head when it fell lax, the motion making his want to vomit with how doll-like the teen was. He watched alongside the others as Bruce strapped on the mask, making sure it was on tight, the man nodded and Tony settled the boy back down. They watched as Bruce broke the seal on whatever was in the cannister, the empty saline bag inflated some before a hazy settled in the tubing that he’d connected to the oxygen hose. 

“What now?” Tony asked, looking to his friend.

Bruce took a step back. “Friday, what else?”

“Scans show fractures ribs-”

“Are they pressing on anything? His lungs?”

“Negative.”

Bruce shook his head. “Friday only give me alerts on things needing treatment right this second!” 

The AI was silent a moment before suddenly speaking once more. “Spid-”

“Peter.” Tony uttered softly. “His names Peter.”

Friday seemed to pick up in the change of protocol. “Peter’s suit is compromised, I detect second-degree burns, heat exhaustion is apparent, Peter is running a fever and severe dehydration is a concern.”

Nodding Bruce moved forward again and grabbed another saline bag, this time one with actual saline in, he looked to Tony. “Tony, his suit. How do we get it off of him?”

Tony nodded slowly, he’d been staring at the boy's slack face. Reaching out he depressed the center of the emblem and the suit fell loose at once. Tony nodded. “Its good to go.”

Seeing what state Tony was in, Clint stepped up and gently shoved his friend to be more at Peter’s head while he helped Bruce to take off the boys suit. The fabric stuck in places, both men winced at the clear indication of the fiber melting in with the boy's flesh.

“Alright stop. Steve come here.”

The man came forward ready to help. “Alright, hold this up, I need to get his arm out and he has burns. Don’t touch his skin, you’re not wearing gloves.”

Steve nodded, swallowing tightly as he watched Bruce gently maneuvering the small arm free of the sleeve, he closed his eyes when he saw the first signs of skin having been burned away. Bruce settled one of the boy's arms, prepared to go onto the other side to do the other only to pause when he saw Natasha standing next to Clint, gloves on. She nodded to him, Bruce nodded back.

Bruce didn’t even bother to turn around when he heard footsteps, he was too busy calling out orders for the impromptu medical team and setting up an I.V. in Peter. Rhodey stood in the doorway, mouth agape at the sight unfolding before him. It was the kid, Spider-man, but it wasn’t...Just some kid sprawled out on a table seemingly hurt, it took a moment for his brain to recognize that the kid beneath the mask was now laid bare to all of them and in the worst way possible. Swallowing tightly, Rhodey took a step inside the room. “What do you need?”

Bruce looked up. “Ice.”

Nodding Rhodey turned on his heel and went to do his part.

“Ice?” Steve questioned.

“He’s burning up Steve, he’s dehydrated and suffering from burns, that leaches all the moisture from your body and the heat of the fire...He needs to be cooled off.”

Steve nodded, staring docilely as the boy was stripped bit by bit, he played his part holding parts of the boy's suit as it was stripped, letting Bruce do the hard task of pulling it free from the boys blistered flesh. Looking across found that Clint and Natasha were once more the power duo he knew them to be, working in tandem with barely a word spared between them.  His gaze went to Tony, Steve’s face fell, his heart ached for how wrecked Tony looked as he stroked his hand through the boy-Peter’s hair. Watching his face as if he was hoping that the boy would just open his eyes and say it was all a joke. Steve had to admit he would have rathered that ending to this too. 

His eyes fell once more when Bruce nudged him to keep going, bit by bit they got the suit removed until at long last both sides reached the boy's feet. The suit came off relatively easy there, Bruce sighing in relief and spouting out words about insulated heels. The suit was discarded, a complete loss, its owner far more precious than the destroyed tech.

Standing back the group saw for themselves the state of the teen spread out between them. Peter’s limbs were just as limp as his head, his fingernails were showing the signs of his hypoxemia just as his lips had when they tipped of Bruce to begin with. Soot marred a good portion of the boy's skin, other parts seemed to have gotten away unscathed entirely while yet more places showed the signs of the kid’s apparent walk through fire.

Bruce took a deep breath. “Alright. Everyone...Gloves now.” Clint and Steve turned, getting gloves, Bruce looked to Tony, sending Natasha a look. She nodded, grabbing some gloves and gently cajoling Tony into putting them on.

Steve leaned over. “Is that necessary? His head-”

“I’m not taking any chances.” Bruce cut him off.

Rhodey came in not a moment later, a giant cooler struggled between this arms. Steven jumped to help, bringing the crate of mismatched cooling devices. Bruce smiled at the sight of it. “Great, alright...” He looked at the boy and took another breath. “We gotta wipe his wounds down, their dirty and that’s just borrowing trouble.”

Bruce gathered some pads and cream, handing them out to the team. “He’s unconscious, you can’t hurt him.” He enforced. “Clean the burns till they start to bleed.”

The group froze, Bruce shook his head. “Just do it.”

Slowly the Avengers began to find the small bits of burned flesh, thankfully it didn’t appear that Peter had a large body of burns, more small pockets as if he’d bumped into things that had then burned him. Soon enough there was a fair amount of blood falling from the boy's limbs and torso in small patches. They all pulled back waiting for Bruce to decide what to do. Nodding, he threw gauze and a few bottles of some type of lotion. “Put that on the gauze, not the wound. Lay the gauze on top gently, we’ll wrap the areas after that.”

“Is this going to be enough?” Clint asked carefully.

Bruce nodded. “Hopefully his healing will take over soon.” Looking up at the boy's pale lips, Bruce dared. “Friday stats.”

“Peter’s oxygen saturation is 55%, his pulse is 150 beats per minute.”

Bruce sighed. “Progress...Slow, but progress.” Looking down at the foot of the bed, Bruce called out to Rhodey. “Once we get a layer of cloth on his skin we’re packing him.”

Rhodey nodded “Carrots or peas man.”

Bruce smirked before turning back to his work, gently coating gauze strips and covering the burn sites. One after another until patches of the boy's limbs were spotted, taking a roll of gauze, Bruce applied it on the front only to wrap it around and catch the tail as he came around, continuing the gauze strips until they were covering the boy's wounds. The others caught on and pretty soon Peter looked more like he was a kid trying to play mummy, the sporadic patches of gauze standing out on the limp boy's body. Bruce sighed, the boy was covered, areas that weren’t burned were hidden regardless as they covered Peter in a sheet before he waved Rhodey forward. Steve and Natasha helped the man and Bruce showed them where to place the modified ice packs. Before too long the cooler was empty and Peter’s main heating locations were on ice. All eyes went to Bruce, the man shook his head. “Time.”

They nodded, none of them liked that, that there was nothing more they could do for him. Sighing Bruce peeled off his gloves and slumped down onto a rollie chair, pulling himself up closer to Peter he looked over to where Tony was still staring down at the kid. Shaking his head, he smiled to the others. “Thanks for the help guys.”

They all silently nodded as if they would have just stood by and watched the boy suffer. Bruce wiped a hand down his face before calling out. “Friday I want alerts, his breathing decreases, heart increases past normal perimeters or goes higher...Temperature too.”

“Of course Dr. Banner.”

Clint put a hand on Tony’s back, not bothering to patronize the man by saying everything would be alright. He didn’t know that though he sincerely hoped so. Tony nodded his head, tearing his gaze from Peter. “Friday show me what happened.”

“Tony-” Steve called out, but the man waved out a hand. 

“I want to know what happened to my kid.” Tony glared. “Show me Friday.”

“I have managed to recover the footage from Peter’s suit up until it became compromised and the data was distorted.”

“Fine, show me what you have.”

They stood back and watched as a holographic display lit up, they could see through Peter’s eyes. 

The teen webbed forward, landing on the side of a building, smoke was seen in the distance and then Peter spoke.

“Karen, what is that?” The curious note of the boy's voice was so innocent in its confusion.

An AI voice none of them had heard before chimed.  “I believe it is a level 3 fire Peter, I would advise extreme caution.”

Peter was seen to nod before a line of web shot out. “Let’s go see if we can’t help.”

“Alright, Peter but be careful, we’re not fireproof.”

Peter laughed before sassily replying. “Karen I’m not going to roll in it, I’m just going to see if anyone needs help.”

“Of course Peter.”

They followed along as the teen came upon the building, it was engulfed. Peter stared at it in shock, his gaze going top to bottom before he called out. “Karen is there anyone in there?”

“Changing scan mode.” 

The teen's vision changed to infrared, the white-hot of the fire was dispersed by three flickers of much colder temperatures. The vision changed again and what looked like little pulse signals showed up around the same areas.

“My scans indicate there are three people still in the building.”

“They’re trapped.” Peter deduced, slinging a line of web to a building that was closer to the one engulfed in flames. “Karen give me the best route to enter the building.”

“Peter this is not advisable, your suit is not equipped to filter oxygen for you and it is not fireproof.”

“Karen.” Peter bit out sharply, no hesitation or quiver in his voice in the face of the fire. “Route.”

The AI replied. “Highlighting route.”

The teens HUD changed to show a route and they followed along as the boy slung himself around one side and propelled his entire body through a weakened part of the wall. Instantly the boy was in nothing but a shocking state of reds and oranges that danced, licked at surfaces as thick black smoke covered the boy's eyes. 

“Karen.” Peter coughed. “Help me see them.”

The boys HUD changed, illuminating the heartbeats of the other occupants and showing a rough outline of his surroundings. “Peter, I strongly advise you to leave the building. Its structural integrity is compromised, I estimate that it will only be stable for another five minutes and seventeen seconds.”

Peter coughed, his head nodding. “We can do this.” Peter ran barging shoulder first into a burning door. An outline of the suit popped up, a hot red outline showing where the boy's shoulder had hit the door.

“Peter you have sustained a minor burn-”

“Not now Karen.” Peter coughed, hacking as he made his way through the burning building, kicking things out of his way and crashing into things as he went. The outline of the suit flared periodically but Karen remained silent. Finally, Peter reached someone, they were unconscious, ducking down Peter slung them over his shoulder. “Don’t worry I got you.” Peter choked. “Karen exit.”

The HUD flared and Peter ran for it, crashing through a window and shooting a line of web blind, he stuck to a building and lowered the person to the ground. Firefighters came to his aid.

“Spider-man you went in there?”

“There’s two more.” He coughed. “I’ll be back.”

“Wait!”

Peter took off without a second thought. “Karen give me an entrance?” The boy voice sounded as if he’d been smoking too much.

“Route highlighted. Peter, you are in danger of severe smoke inhalation, your lungs-”

“Not now Karen.” Peter made his way through a collapsed part of a wall, ducking down, earning another flare of the suit outline as his arm brushed the hot side, Peter hissed but kept going despite the sudden sharp pain of the heat burning into him. Shuffling through things, tripping and catching himself, coughing all the way Peter continued forward. The teen called out. “K-Karen. Where?”

“A person is directly in front of you Peter, two feet forward.” 

Peter nodded, the vision bobbing as the teen moved. Peter nearly tripped over the person but managed to catch himself. Kneeling down Peter slung the person over his shoulder, rising he stumbled.

“Peter your oxygen is severely compromised, your core body temperature is rising. You are suffering from heat exhaustion. You need to leave now.”

Peter stumbled towards a nearby window, coughing he bashed it out and shot a line of webbing, making an entire web-like structure. They watched as Peter wrapped the person in webbing all the while apologizing. “Sorry about this, but it’s the fastest way.” Peter let go of the person and they swung into the web sling that the boy made. Safely away from the burning building and with a team of firefighters already climbing the nearby fire escape to retrieve them. Peter waved to the firefighters before ducking back into the building. “Where?”

“Peter I must insist-”

“Now Karen!” Peter coughed, hacking as he bent over.

“Below Peter, the remaining person is two levels below, you have a mathematical improbability of reaching them before the building collapses. You must leave.”

Peter disregarded the AI’s concern for himself, instead asking. “Down?” Peter gasped.

“Peter?”

“Are-Are they straight down?”

“Yes, Peter, two levels below your current position and to the left.”

Peter nodded, his vision was a weird swath of colors but as they watched the boy stomped his foot and splinters in the unstable wood of the floor, a light appeared showing the hot underbelly below.

“Peter what are you doing?”

“Making an elevator!” Peter tilted his head up he shot a large quantity of webbing, pulled on it. It held, nodding he turned back to his other task. He slammed his foot down and the floor shattered, Peter fell straight down as the group gasped, the boy going down in a horrible yo-yo like fashion, the boy's legs hitting things as he crashed through, the display flickering red. Peter crashed to the floor, coughing as he rose to kick at the next level.

“Peter...You are in danger, I am sending an SOS to Friday.”

“Don’t!” Peter coughed. “I can do this Karen.”

“It is not a matter of ability, it is a matter of probability, I cannot allow you to put your life in any more danger.”

They heard Peter curse before he broke through to the last layer, crashing to his knees. The teen coughed, his hand coming out in front of the vision, bracing him so he wouldn’t fall over. The teen couldn’t catch his breath, shaking his head Peter forced himself upright, grabbing onto a piece of half-collapsed furniture to climb to his feet. The pain of the burn negligent to the pain in his lungs. Peter followed the display, coming to the person, he fell. Peter sat there coughing as the small timer in the corner of his HUD ticked down, the building was going to collapse.

“Peter, you need to leave now, the building is going to collapse.”

Peter shook his head. “No.” He croaked, a few harsh coughs leaving him. “Not without them.” Peter’s hand came out to drag the limp figure towards himself.

“Peter you must hurry!” The countdown was nearing zero.

Peter stumbled to his feet, losing them a moment later as he fought to keep hold of the person he was trying to save. Managing to throw the person over his shoulder, the teen crashed forward into the wall in front of himself as the sudden weight shift unbalanced him.

“Peter. You need to hurry, you’re running out of time.”

“R-Route.”

The HUD changed, and Peter stumbled along with it. They watched as the teen went step by step towards the exit his AI paved for him as the timer in the corner of his HUD went closer to zero with each step the boy took.

“Peter, you have five seconds, you need to run if you’re to get out before the building collapses.”

Peter’s head came up as if that was what he needed to hear. The teen groaned as he ran forward, telling Karen as he did. “I am not being buried again!” Peter twisted sharply and with a great grunt crashed through the stone bricks of the wall with his shoulder, sending him and the person he’d been shielding tumbling into the fresh air. Peter dragged him and the survivor away just as the building crumbled and fell into itself.

“Peter your oxygen saturation is severely compromised, you need oxygen. Your core temperature has risen dramatically, you need to cool yourself down.”

Peter gasped as he stood up, through his mask he could see firefighters running towards him and the survivor. “Air has oxygen Karen.” He stammered out between coughs.

“You do not have enough Peter, your lungs are compromised. Please wait for assistance.”

Peter shook his head, he stumbled a bit before shooting out a line of webbing and with a bit of a jerk managed to swing himself up to the fire escape where he shot another line of webbing, going further away from the fire.

“Peter, you need to stop, you are exerting yourself. Your temperature has risen considerably over the last few minutes and your oxygen is decreasing.”

Peter gasped out breathlessly. “I-I can’t breath.” Peter faltered when he made it to the landing point, the group winced as the teen stumbled before crashing forward and tumbling a few times. Ultimately the boy was laid out flat, staring up at the sky.

“Peter?” Nothing the lenses began to close. “Peter you must remain awake.” They closed more. “Peter your heartbeat has increased, please remain calm.” The lenses stayed partway open but it was clear that was not on the boys own doing. “Peter I sent an SOS, Friday is sen-d-n-n-d---” The audio cut out as the video began to cut off just as the glint of something coming into view ahead of the boy's eyes.

The holographic display ended.

“That’s all I got boss.”

Tony nodded. “That’s enough.” His voice was sour as he said it, his eyes staying glued onto Peter.

“Tony.” Steve began. “The kid was doing what he thought was right.”

Tony shook his head the hand not in the boy's hair curled into a fist. “You don’t go back into a burning building if you can’t breathe!” Tony looked up at Steve, his eyes wet. “You don’t do that!”

Steve nodded. “I know.” He agreed. “Peter wasn’t going to leave them behind Tony, that’s not who he is.”

Tony grimaced, shaking his head as he stared down at the teen. “Y-You stupid kid...What did I tell you huh? Keep both feet on the ground.”

Rhodey walked forward, gently nudging Natasha he made a small motion. She frowned before it clicked, phone. She shook her head until Rhodey pointed to Peter and mouthed. ‘aunt’. Natasha’s eyes widened. Rhodey nodded, patting her on the arm as he turned to go and make the call.

“Don’t.”

Everyone froze, Tony looked up, his head turning to stare at Rhodey and Natasha as if he’d already figured out by the man moving what was going on.

“Ton-”

Tony shook his head. “You don’t get to make that call.”

Rhodey sighed. “Tony she deser-”

“This is on me.” Tony bit out. “This is on me, I make that call, I’m the one who has to tell May what happened.” Rhodey’s face tightened as his friend continued. “So you don’t get to do that, the kids my responsibility.”

“He’s all of ours.” Steve cut in when Tony tried to put everything on his own shoulders. 

Tony turned a sharp eye only to hear Natasha reply. “He is, me and Clint have been training his reflexes, how to escape when you're in a pinch.”

Clint nodded. “How to maneuver around obstacles.” He huffed out a laugh. “How to steal things without getting caught.” He met Steves' eyes.

The man rolled his eyes. “You really made stealing my pudding a mission for him?”

Despite how horrible everything was, even Tony laughed, it turned a bit sour in the end, more half-broken hitches of breath as if the man refused to break down completely but it had been laughter at the start.

Bruce sighed, looking to the others “It’s still early, he’s responding to treatment...One hour Tony.”

Tony looked up in fear, Bruce shook his head when the man misinterpreted what he was about to say. “One hour and then we call her whether he’s awake or not.” Tony nodded his acceptance of the deal, Bruce turned away. “I’m going to clean some stuff up you guys can hea-”

“We’ll be here.” Natasha replied as she took a step back to rest her back against the wall and thus be out of the way. Clint followed her, Tony being the only one on that side of the bed to stay where they were. Steve turned his eyes on Bruce and smiled. “Tell us what you need, we’re here to help.”

Bruce smiled. “Get a broom.” Looking down at the floor to all the discarded packaging of gauze and cream tubes. Steve nodded, going to do just that. Rhodey sighed, looking over to the boy's suit, he walked over and picked it up turning it over in his hand.

“Put it in my lab...Please.”

Rhodey looked up in surprise to what Tony had requested. “Sure. Is it salv-”

Tony shook his head. “No, but Karen is...Pete likes her.” He smirked tiredly to his friend.

Rhodey smiled back. “Alright.” Walking out of the room with the destroyed suit, Rhodey left the others to tend to Peter. 

From that point on it was a waiting game, the hour was ticking, the fact that Tony would need to call the kids aunt and explain all that had happened was on everyone's minds...All but Tony’s, his focus was solely on Peter.

The boy's lips which had taken an eerie blue tint seemed to be gaining a bit of color, Tony could only hope that the change was something positive. He was still carding his hand through the kid's hair wanting to have some hold on the kid as if that tangible thing would keep the boy from leaving. Some small way of being closer to the teen when he was already right next to him despite Peter being oblivious to that fact.

 

**Time.**

 

“Tony-”

The man nodded, standing he finished another stroke of his hands through the boy's hair and turned to walk away. Calling out as he made his journey out of the room. “Friday call May Parker, send her to my workstation.”

“On it boss.”

The Avengers watched on in silence as Tony went to make what they knew would be a hard phone call if it had been anyone, but for Tony who was so attached to Peter as they now knew...This could break him.

Sighing Steve looked to Bruce, the man shook his head. “Leave him, he needs to do that on his own, the least we can do is keep an eye on Peter.”

“Kids not going anywhere.” Clint returned as he pushed himself off of the wall to come closer now that Tony wasn’t occupying the space by the kids head. “His aunt will be coming the second she hears what’s going on, can we clean him up a bit?”

Bruce looked from the archer to the boy, he was swathed in gauze and covered with a sheet, frankly, there was no way to hide that from the kid's aunt but Bruce figured it was more about the boy ashen face still coated in soot that had the archers attention.

“Yeah, let me get something.” Bruce turned to find some antiseptic wipes, they’d be effective on the soot and help to stop any cuts Peter might have under all the dirt and grime from getting infected. He really should have thought of that beforehand, but with the race to get Peter’s vitals under control...He’d forgotten. Coming back he set down a handful of the wipes only to smirk when Clint reached over to grab one himself.

“Try not to disturb the mask too much, he needs the oxygen.”

Clint nodded as he pulled the wipe from the sleeve, gently the archer wiped at the soot that clung to the boy's forehead, it was stubborn, refused to leave the skin of the teen at first. A bit of patience and Clint was rewarded with fresh pink skin, the dark soot wiped out of existence. Bruce took up his own side, gently cleaning the boy's ear which was caked with the stuff, as if he’d rolled his face in it, based off of the video and how Peter had crashed into things it was a wonder he wasn’t covered more than he already was. Clint had moved onto the boy's cheek, his scrubbing made the new skin beneath a rosy color from all the clothes repeated paths across it. 

“Can I lift it a minute?” Clint questioned carefully as if he feared just mentioning it would hurt the kid. There was a line of soot near the boy's nose and the archer really did think it might be best if they could rid the kid of all the proof of him walking into a burning building before his aunt came to see him.

Bruce nodded. “Yeah, just for the moment, try to keep it over his mouth if you can.”

Clint carefully pulled the mask down, warring with the plastic to get it to cover the boy's mouth but not his nose. He managed but it did look more comical than effective, sighing Clint took a fresh wipe and reached out to start scrubbing at a line of soot. The wipe had only gotten one pass before Peter scared all of them by twisting his head away. Clint froze, looked to Bruce wide-eyed. Bruce threw his own cloth aside.

“Peter, can you hear me?” He leaned closer in the hopes that it might help the boy recognize someone was near. “Can you open your eyes for me?”

The teen did nothing of the sort, with furrowed brows Bruce called out. “Friday what are his stats?”

“Peter’s current oxygen saturation is at 64% his heart rate is 140 beats per minute.” 

Bruce smiled, looking to the others. “That’s better, his hearts slowing down and he’s getting more oxygen. Might be why he’s able to recognize us touching him.”

The Avengers all nodded, watching on as Clint reached out carefully to right the boys head with a gentle hold of his chin. He brought the cloth back over to continue where he left off only for Peter to jerk his head away.

“Wait...” Steve held up a hand. “He’s reacting to the cloth.”

Bruce nodded as he watched the boy carefully.

Steve grabbed the cloth out of Bruce's hand and put it up to his nose, it wasn’t overly obtrusive to himself though still not pleasant. “These have alcohol in them.”

“Well, sorta...It’s an antiseptic wipe to-”

Steve cut the man off. “Bruce, it smells funny. Peter’s smelling it and trying to get away from it.”

Bruce turned his attention back to Peter just for a hair, twisting about he went to find something that might just be enough to rouse the teen. Calling over his shoulder. “Clint, piss the kid off.”

Clint blinked, looking to Steve in shock, the man shrugged which had Clint sighing. “Alright.” Grasping the kid's chin, he turned Peters face back towards himself and once more brought the antiseptic cloth towards the boy's nose. Peter tried to jerk his head away, but Clint held firm. Feeling the bit of tension, the strength being applied when Peter tried to move away had Clint smirking. “Oh yeah, he does not like this.”

“Good.” Bruce called out as he returned, an item in hand that they were all familiar with. Smelling salts.

“Do you think that will work?” Natasha questioned as she came to stand beside Clint, eager to find out. 

“No way to know but try. Alright, Peter let’s see if we can’t wake you up a bit more.” Bruce wafted the smelling salts under the boy's nose, the reaction was instantaneous. The boy tried to shift his head only to be prevented from doing so. When that didn’t work and the horrible scent of the salts continued the teen reacted in another way, his right arm came up as if to push the thing away, Steve jumped in grabbing the kids hand and pulling it back.

“Come on kid.”

“Peter, open your eyes.” Bruce cajoled the teen as he gave the boy a break from the horrid smelling chemicals. If he was reacting enough to pull his hand up, he was coming out of it. “Come on Peter, you need to open your eyes for me.”

Clint huffed when the teen continued to try and shift his head away, his attempts only met with failure as the archer refused to let him go. The groan they got next had them all beaming, Bruce wafting the salts just a bit more, enough that they saw the teen jerk as if shocked by the odorous smell. Steve held fast when the boy's hand tried to rise out of his own grasp in some effort to move the smell away, Natasha took up his other hand when the teen tried that one.

“Peter.” Bruce called firmer. “Open your eyes.” The teen refused, continuing to try and get away every time that Bruce gave him even a little bit of the smelling salts. And that’s how Tony came back in, he was wrung out, utterly exhausted after his conversation with May. He paused in the doorway, seeing his team, his friends holding the boy down, Clint holding the boys head while Bruce leaned over him.

“What the hell?!”

The group jerked, looking back at Tony who looked all of a second from attacking them. Natasha cried out. “He’s waking up Tony.”

Tony came forward quickly. “Why are you restraining him like that?” The man growled even as hoped that the woman was right and that Peter was waking.

“He’s trying to stop Bruce from using the smelling salts. He won’t open his eyes.” Steve countered.

Tony squeezed in beside Clint, a grimace to his face as the man held the boy's chin firmly. Leaning closer Tony pleaded. “Come on Underoos, Peter, you gotta wake up kid. No more napping.” He stroked the kid's forehead a bit, letting his fingers delve into the brown curls.

Bruce set aside the salts when they saw the boy's leg kick a bit. “He can’t be moving like that, he’ll irritate his burns.” The reservation in the man's tone clearly depicted how he wanted to continue in the hopes of rousing the kid but refused to do so if it meant hurting him.

Tony shook his head, tapping the kid's forehead with a finger. “Kid, you gotta wake up now. I did not just get the reaming of a lifetime by your aunt just for you to take a nap.”

The others let out a small chuckle at that, as Tony continued to try and get Peter to listen.

“Peter, if you can hear us right now you need to open your eyes.” Bruce repeated. “We need to see you open your eyes, I promise you can go back to sleep.”

Tony’s head jerked up at the man's promise, but Bruce shook his head. “Peter-” The scientist raised his voice as he tried to force the boy to focus on just him and not the people holding him in compliance. The teens head shifted sharply away from Bruce, his eyes pinching tightly as his mouth opened, a harsh cough leaving him.

“Alright, just breath Peter, you’re alright.” Bruce reached up near the top of the bed and increased the oxygen flow, pulling the boys mask back to cover his nose.

Peter jerked again, his leg kicking out as he fought to turn his head away from the doctor, his hands jerking more forcefully, Natasha losing her grasp on the teen’s left hand as he pulling it up and towards his face. Clint grunted as he was shoved, Tony taking the kids hand immediately, prepared to hold it hostage in Natasha’s wake despite how hard the kid was pulling only to stop. Looking at Peter, truly looking now that the boy was putting up a fight or starting to, Tony glanced around the room. Everyone was touching him, Bruce was yelling at him to open his eyes, the sounds of the monitoring equipment were in the background, useless to them but harsh to Peter, the lights. Tony looked before calling out in haste.

“Friday, spidey out!”

“Initializing protocol: Spidey out.”

The group froze when the lights dimmed considerably, the monitors went quiet and Tony waved a hand at Bruce.

“Lower your voice.” Tony’s own was dimmed much like the lights above them.

“What’s going on?” Clint asked as he came forward from where he’d stumbled.

Tony shook his head. “He’s got this thing...His senses can get dialed up to eleven, it hurts. He’s sensitive to lights, sound...We’re touching him. Everything’s at eleven and he doesn’t know what’s going on.” Tony spat out in a hurry. “Lower your voices, don’t squeeze his hand.” He looked to Steve who lessened his grip as fast as the words had left Tony’s mouth. Panting as if he’d run a marathon, Tony leaned in closer and whispered. “It’s okay Pete, it’s okay.”

The teen groaned again, his head falling towards Tony. “Just gotta open those eyes for me kid, Bruce needs to see them.” Tony smiled when Peter’s hand shifted in his hand, Tony brought it up to his chest in a heartbeat. “See I’m right here, you can feel it, just focus on my heartbeat, gotta be working hard right now with how you’re scaring the crap out of me.”

Peter’s fingers curled in the man’s shirt, the teen coughed again, once, twice, then shifted as if to curl onto his side. Bruce shook his head, alarmed, reaching out to grab the kids shoulder, waving at Steve. The man got the memo, gently helping to keep the kid on his back.

“Hey-Hey, you’re okay, gotta stay laying down kid. Okay, Pete? Just do what Bruce tells you, stay still.”

Peter groaned, shifting in their hold, not a fan of the apparent order, he coughed again only to have his hand tighten, wrapping around Tony’s shirt and constraining the fabric. Tony gave a soft chuckle, patting the boy's hand.

“Easy Underoos, I’m not going anywhere.” Smiling at the kid's antics while out of it, Tony looked to Bruce. “How bad off is he?” He hadn’t been paying attention when the others tended to the youth, too caught up in his own head.

Bruce sighed. “He’s got second-degree burns around his body Tony, that’s not good. He’s dehydrated and running a fever from heat exhaustion, we got that being worked on right now.” He motioned to the sheet covering the teen and the packages of random vegetables laying on top that Rhodey had stolen from the kitchen. “His breathing is a big concern, but his heart was slowing down the last time I checked which is good.”

Tony nodded, it was hard to hear, to know that Peter was still suffering when he was showing signs of being aware. “How-How painful is this?”

Bruce knew why he was asking, Peter couldn’t benefit from any pain relief. “Tony-”

Tony shook his head. “What’s he looking at Bruce?”

Sighing Bruce relayed. “Second-degree burns affect two layers of the skin, they’re painful Tony and they take a while to heal 2-3 weeks, even if he wasn’t-Special, pain management for burns is inadequate.”

Tony swallowed, gave a small bob of his head and turned his attention back to Peter.

“He’s lucky.” Tonys head canted up towards Bruce in question. “The burns he has are small, he might have quite a few of them, but it’s not all in one patch. It might not...Be as bad that way.”

Tony took the attempt at consoling him for what it was worth, a kind gesture from a friend. His attention went back to Peter where he softly spoke. “Peter, I know this probably hurts for you kid and I know it’s off the charts cause you don’t do things by halves. But I need you to wake up, okay? I need you to open your eyes and make some stupid joke about sunscreen.”

Peter lay there, his mouth agape as small coughs left him. His head was canted towards Tony as it had been, his hand tightly wrapped around the man's shirt though his arm was lax as if all his strength had been transferred to the hand itself. Tony had a theory about that one, gently he pried the boy's fingers off.

“Tony?”

The man smiled as he did it, when he managed to detangle the kid from himself he let the boys hand fall into his waiting palm as the arm went slack. Giving a small chuckle when he turned his palm upside down and the boy's hand stayed glued to himself, Tony called out. “It’s cheating to go back to sleep sticking to me kid.” Stroking the boy's hand, Tony righted his hand and gently pulled Peter’s free to let it settle once more on the bed as he ran his other hand through the teen's hair.

“He was sticking to you?” Steve couldn’t help but question in perplexed confusion despite watching it with his own eyes.

Tony nodded. “He can do it in his sleep by accident or even if he’s awake and distracted.” Tony commented mildly, a small smile gracing his features as Peter shifted again.

“So...He could be stuck to Steve?” Clint muttered with a grin towards the aforementioned man who was still holding the kid's hand.

Steve huffed, looking down at the kid's hand he was holding, he didn’t think Peter was sticking to him but then again he didn’t know what it felt like. His gaze shot back up towards Tony when the man muttered.

“Even if he was, there wouldn’t be much you could do if he decided to really hold on.” 

“Steve’s strong.” 

“So is Peter.”

The group left it at that, Rhodey returned from his errand. Quietly entering the room and walking up to Steve. “What’d I miss?”

“Peter’s waking up.”

Rhodey sighed in relief, looking to Tony the man informed him. “Happy called.”

Tony nodded. “What’s their ETA?”

“Fifteen minutes.”

“That his aunt?” Clint questioned.

“Yeah.” Tony let out a rush of air, his gaze going to Peter. “Now would be a good time to wake up Underoos.”

Rhodey smirked. “Happy...Well, he said you might want to wear the armor.”

Tony huffed. “I don’t even think that would help...May Parker-Well, shes, intimidating.”

“Tony Starks afraid of a woman?” Natasha teased.

“No...” Tony shook his head. “Tony Stark is afraid of May Parker.”

Natasha smiled at the clarification. “Is she super strong?”

Tony huffed. “She is, just not in the superpower kind of way...Took in Peter when his parents died, lost her husband, got a superhero kid...Yeah, she’s tough as Vibranium nails.”

Rhodey snorted. “Yeah, heard that talk you had with her over curfews for school.”

Tony winced. “Not the best conversation...Or delegation I should say.”

“Yeah...You were pretty much at her mercy Tones.”

Rolling his eyes as his friend bad mouthed him, Tony glanced down to Peter. “Kid, their speaking blasphemous things about me, need you to come save me.”

Peter didn’t speak, but he did cough a few times, Tony took it at face value. The kid would be on his side when he woke up.

“Boss. Happy has just arrived.”

Sighing, Tony smacked Clint on the shoulder as he tore himself away from Peter. “Keep an eye on Underoos for me...I’m going to go get punched in the face.”

The group snorted as Tony left the room, Rhodey couldn’t help but state. “Sad thing is, I don’t think he’s wrong about that.”

That had the group sobering up a bit. They waited anxiously for Tony and Peter’s aunt to come into the room, in the meantime, they kept a sharp eye on the kid. Peter would cough occasionally but didn’t appear to be making any progress towards being awake. Bruce had taken the brief lapse in talking to clean up the small mess he and Clint had made when trying to clean up the kid. Tossing out the used wipes and storing the others. From there he hung a new saline bag, waiting for the last of the current one to drain before hooking the second one in. 

The sound of racing footsteps had them all on guard, the woman who came to an abrupt halt just inside the doorway had all of their attention. May covered her mouth at the sight of her nephew. 

“OH, gods...Peter.” She ran forward, Natasha and Clint stepping back to allow her the space she would need to get to him. She shook her head at the sight of the boy, who was covered in a sheet, his arms which were above swathed in bandages while his body was had impromptu cooling packs around his main centers of heat distribution. The oxygen mask that was fitted over his nose and mouth fogged up periodically but just made the sight of the boy all the more impactful. May shook, trembled as she leaned forward to gently card her fingers through Peter’s hair. Her voice strained as she rasped. “Oh sweetie...What did you do?”

Despite knowing it was rhetorical, Steve informed the woman. “He saved three people.”

May tilted her head towards the voice, only to blink in surprise when she recognized the face staring back at her. “H-He did?”

Steve nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”

May tore her gaze away from Captain America’s, looking at Peter, she smiled softly before leaning over to kiss his brow. “I’m proud of you, but I am so-so-so mad at you.”

The Avengers remained silent as the woman whispered to her nephew. They glanced to the door when Tony appeared, the man was holding an ice pack to his cheek and had a small wad of toilet paper in his left nostril. Their eyes widened at that, but he shrugged, he’d expected worse to be honest.

Bruce smirked at the state Tony had been put in by the woman, doing his part or at least attempting to help her Bruce informed her. “He’s doing better than when he first came in.”

May looked across the span of Peter’s bed. “His oxygen stats are up and he’s started to cough a bit which is proof his bodies trying to get rid of...Contaminants.” Bruce wasn’t entirely sure what Tony had told the woman other than the boy had been burned.

“Is he going to be okay?” She asked firmly, not wanting to be placated.

Bruce smiled. “I’m still getting used to Peter’s unique situation but even if he were just like you, he would get better. My main concerns were oxygen, fever, and burns themselves. We’ve already addressed all those issues, now it’s just down to time.”

May sighed in relief, her hand stroking Peter’s cheek. “Pete, baby can you hear me?” She got no response. “It’s May, I’m right here sweetie.”

Bruce looked to the others, giving a gentle motion that told them all to disperse. Despite wanted to wait around, they took the sign as a means to give the woman time alone with her nephew. None of them argued, Steve gently lowered the boy’s hand, it laxly laid on the covers and Steve joined the others on the way out. Gently patting Tony’s shoulder as they left, Tony himself just nodded, staring into the room where May was gently assuring Peter that she was there. Bruce sat down on the wheelie chair but kept his distance, offering May the only privacy he could give her. Bruce looked his way, but Tony shook his head and twisted about. May had made it abundantly clear, she didn’t want to see his face for a while, a long-long while.

 

*********

 

Tony walked through the common room, ignoring the others, he needed space of his own. So he used the elevator to seek solace in one of the workshops below. Coming into the room, Tony stared at all the projects before angrily picking up a tool nearby and chucking it the newest Iron man suit he’d been building. The metal clang of the two metals hitting radiated in the room, Tony was sure that he’d scuffed up the armor but he didn’t give a damn. 

Stumbling forward, Tony allowed himself to fall down onto the couch in the workshop. Head in hands despite the throbbing it caused his cheek, Tony muttered to himself. “What was I thinking? God, what was I thinking?” Tony’s shoulders shook as he began to fall into the emotions he’d barely kept at bay this entire time. Before he knew it, harsh, jerking, throbbing sobs left him. His whole frame shaking with the weight of them as tears fell between his spread fingers. The kid could have died. Peter-Peter could have died.

 

*********

 

Bruce watched silently as May continued to talk to Peter, the boy was ignorant of this fact. He’d settled shortly before the woman arrived and Bruce wasn’t sure if that meant he was asleep or he had just fallen back unconscious. Either way, the boy wasn’t answering his aunt’s pleads to wake up. Picking up a nearby Stark pad, Bruce subvertely asked for Peter’s stats rather than addressing Friday directly. The stats that pulled up had him nodding, better still, Peter was getting more oxygen and his pulse remained stable even though it was higher than normal. At least it wasn’t fluctuating or worse going the other direction, sitting where it was Bruce was content to leave it. The boy's temperature had come down, another relief to the doctor, the ice packs were working to cool off the boy's core temperature. Pleased with the current results, Bruce set aside the tablet. Looking up he found May staring at him.

“Do you need anything? Can I get you something?”

May shook her head. “I-I’m sorry...But who are you?”

Bruce chuckled. “My names Bruce Banner, I’m a scientist a-”

May smiled. “I remember you.”

Bruce sighed, yeah most people did. Hard to forget the man who turned into a giant green rage monster.

“Peter was going on and on about some paper of yours, I couldn’t understand a lick of it, but he was so excited.”

Bruce chuckled, okay that wasn’t the type of recognition that he was used too, but he’d take it.  “He hasn’t said anything about reading my papers.”

She scoffed. “He can be shy, I know it might not seem like it but there have been times where he’s come home after being-Here and he’s super excited and tells me all about it but when I question what he said to everyone he just...Pauses.” May mused with a frown. “He doesn’t feel...Right, being open with you all I guess, hero-worship or maybe he’s just still a k-kid who doesn’t know how to work with adults.” May sighed. “I-I wish he wouldn’t do this.”

Bruce nodded. “I think most parents would agree with you there, but from what I’ve seen of Peter, he’s not the sort to just stop because it’s what’s best for him.”

May huffed. “No, he’s so self-sacrificing...I knew he’d have issues after Ben, but...I never expected it to drive him to do things like this.” She waved a hand at her nephew and then to the room itself. 

“If you don’t mind me asking...Who was ben?”

“My husband.” May smiled. “He and Peter were...Out and they got caught in a robbery at a store, Ben-He died.”

“I’m sorry.” Bruce frowned. “That had to be hard on you, on Peter.”

She nodded, it had been hard, some of the hardest times they’d endured together. “I think he feels guilty about it.”

“Why would you say that?”

May smiled softly as she stared at her nephew. “Because he had his abilities then...Was trying to act like nothing had changed. Neither I or Ben knew about or at the very least I don’t think Ben knew, I certainly didn’t. Peter didn’t tell me until a few months ago that he had them at that time, but he’s never fessed up to feeling-”

“Guilty for not doing something.”

May nodded. “But there’s no way Ben would have allowed him to do anything. Abilities or not, he’s just a kid.”

“Peter’s a good kid, my few times talking with him...He’s very charismatic.”

“Yeah...He’s so full of energy all the time.” May sighed. “I-I’m glad that he saved those people I just wish-Wish Peter had thought about himself too, instead of just thinking about saving them. He-He could have died today and I wouldn’t have known until Stark-” Her voice turned sharp. “Until he decided to tell me or the news got wind of who Spider-man was.”

Bruce frowned, despite it not being his place Bruce couldn’t sit idly by. “Mrs. Parker...You’ll have to forgive me, but Tony...He was a mess, still is. He loves Peter, it's not some superhero mentor/mentee thing. Tony loves Peter, he was a mess when the kid got here, he couldn’t even do anything. We had to push him aside-”

May looked back at him, impassive. “He’s the one who helped Peter do this.”

Bruce nodded agreed to some extent as he explained. “I know, he gave Peter the suit.” She nodded as if his comment vilified her anger towards Tony. “But Peter was already being Spider-man without it.” May looked away. “I know this is...Hard, but honestly, Peter wouldn’t be alive if it wasn’t for that suit. The AI, told him how to get out, how to save those people. Knowing Peter, what little I know of him, he would have gone in without that suit and in that case, he’d have been going in blind with no direction.”

May nodded. “I know.” It was a bare whisper. “But what am I supposed to do? He won’t stop and Stark-He’s just, helping.”

“He’s helping because he cares about Peter and wants to protect him as much as anyone can when someone as young as Peter is out there, doing what he does.” Bruce smiled kindly to May. “We’ll get him through this May, Peter will get better.”

She let a strained breath, nodded and then went back to stroking her fingers through Peter’s hair. Soft whispers to the teen being uttered as if the conversation with Bruce hadn’t just taken place.

Bruce sat back and waited.

 

**********

 

The team stayed in the common room, waiting for any sign that Peter woke or was waking and signs that Tony would come up from one of his labs. They all knew why the man had retreated like he had, none of them commented on it nor would they bring it up. Two hours passed and in a blink of an eye Tony was emerging from his self inflicted isolation, the man passed them by, headed for the medbay.

“Did something happen?” Steve called out.

Tony didn’t answer, just continued on his path. The Avengers rose from their seats and made to follow. Whatever was going on, they were going to be there. Tony didn’t slow down even when he heard the group following behind his hastened steps. Their questions went unanswered as he stalked into the room, coming to a sudden stop. May and Bruce looked up, startled by the man's sudden entrance. Tony swallowed and held up something, looking straight at May. “This...Is Karen, he’s used to her voice or what counts as it.” Tony shook his head. “I-I wanna see if he’ll react to her, she was talking to him when he-Before.”

May looked from the device in the man’s hand and to her nephew, looking back she asked in a critical tone. “You think he’d react to a computer more than me?”

Tony flinched a bit, okay that sounded horrible, he shook his head. “No, not if he was awake, but he’s not awake May. He’s unconscious and subconsciously he might register Karen as a voice he should truly pay attention to. He’s used to her telling him what to do.”

May didn’t look sold on the idea until Bruce added his two cents. “May. Let Tony help, he wants to help Peter.”

May looked down at the floor, unable to look at either of the men as she nodded. Tony sighed, coming over to Bruce's side, not wanting to crowd the woman. He took the small Octagon device and set it on Peter’s chest if nothing more than a good place to settle it. Taking the Bluetooth device, Tony gently inserted it into the kid's ear before calling out. “Friday reinitialize Karen.”

“Reinitionalizing...Karen is live.”

Nodding Tony gave the AI a directive. “Get Karen to talk to Peter, tell him to wake up. To open his eyes.”

“I have relayed your message boss, Karen is talking to Peter.”

They waited. After a few minutes they sagged in defeat, the boy's brows might have furrowed a bit, but other than shifting his head a hair he hadn’t reacted. Tony shook his head. “I’m sorry, I was-”

May nodded, crestfallen by the lack of awareness in her nephew, May replied. “Can you stop.”

Tony stood straighter at that, her weak command for him to just stop.

“May-”

Bruce didn’t finish his sentence as May continued. “It’s not working...So can you stop it? I’d rather talk to him, just us...A computer.” She shook her head. “It’s, its’ not what he should be waking up to.” May leveled a tired gaze to Tony and then curiously she asked. “Have you even talked to him?”

Tony nodded. “Yes, I’ve talked to him since he got here.”

May nodded, relieved to hear that her nephew had at least had someone talking to him along the way. The woman sighed only to jump when a ringtone was heard, she twisted and leaned down to pick up her purse that had fallen off of her shoulder. Rifling through it until she found her phone, May answered.

“May Parker...OH, yes, no...I-I- I’m so sorry it’s just.” She looked at Peter. “I’m having a bit of a family emergency.”

The Avengers winced at that, your nephew suffering second-degree burns because he was a vigilante superhero wasn’t a normal cause for a family emergency. Or at the very least, it shouldn’t be.

“Yes. Yes, no I understand.” May’s features tightened before her gaze fell onto Tony. “Just a moment.” She put the phone to her chest to block whoever it was on the phone from hearing her. “I need a ride-”

“Done.” Tony didn’t even hesitate. “Happy can take you anywhere you need...To be.”

She shook her head wanting to make it absolutely clear. “I don’t want to go...But one of my patients, they’re having to prep surgery again and-”

Tony nodded. “It’s alright.” He smiled. “We’re going to be here with Peter, as soon as you’re done Happy can pick you up and bring you back.”

May sighed in relief, nodded and the picked up the phone. “Sir? Yes, no I’m on my way. Yes, bye.” Hanging up the phone, May shoved it in her purse and leaned over to kiss Peter on the forehead. “I’ll be back sweetie, I promise I won’t be gone long.” Kissing him one last time May looked to Tony.

“Friday, tell Happy to be out front, he needs to take May to work.”

“Message is being sent boss.”

“Come on, I’ll walk you.” Rhodey smiled, offering a hand. She smiled back and nodded, allowing the man to wrap an arm around her and pull her towards the door. She pulled back enough to look back at Tony. “Y-You better look after our boy.”

“I will.”

Nodding stiffly, May turned and left. The tension in the air was thick as everyone heard May’s retreating footsteps, the sounds of Rhodey talking to the woman and reassuring her that they could take care of Peter.

Tony sagged, his elbows coming to rest on the guardrails of Peter’s bed. Bruce stood up and patted the man on the back, Tony shook his head. Reaching out he took the Bluetooth device out of Peter’s ear, plucking it into his own.

“Karen offline.” Pulling it out he shoved it into his pocket alongside the device that held the AI. 

“Steve can you go into the next medbay...I think there is a chair there.”

Steve nodded, quickly ducking out to retrieve the chair, Tony looked up giving Bruce a questioning appraisal. The Scientist smiled. “Well someone needs to keep pestering him.”

Tony gave a weak laugh. “I don’t think he’s listening.”

“He’s a teenager.” Natasha chimed in. “Takes a bit.”

Clint backed her up. “Yeah, if you want him out of bed you better get a head start on that. If you’re lucky he might tell you to piss off before May’s back.”

Tony chuckled. “God I hope so.” 

Steve brought in the chair, setting it up on the other side and offering up a reassuring smile to Tony. The man made his way over and slumped into it, feeding his arm through the gaps in the guardrail to touch Peter’s arm. 

“Hear that Pete, I have free reign to piss you off. May might not have said it in so many words, but we both know it was hidden in there.” He stroked the boy's arm with his thumb. “I really need you to stop playing around kid, jokes not funny, not surprising all of your jokes aren’t...But this one takes the cake.”

Bruce gave a nod, with Tony settled he felt secure enough to state. “Why don’t we go get something to eat, it’s going to be a while. Tony, you good?”

Tony nodded, he wasn’t leaving the kids side and he didn’t much feel like eating. Bruce ushered everyone else out, dragging Steve by the arm when it looked like the super soldier wanted to stay behind. Bruce knew that Tony needed some space, now that Peter was improving and the worst of the fear was subsiding, the man had a lot to grapple with. 

Tony held a weak smile as he stared at the boy who was oblivious to the chaos that had been going on around him. The fact that no one would have known about him being hurt, about him possibly dying because of his reckless nature of saving others...It chilled Tony to the bone. What was worse was the fact that he should have gotten an alert the second the teen entered that building, anything above the average ambient temperature and the suit was supposed to send an automatic red flag. Tony hadn’t gotten that until the boy was already done saving the people from the burning building and had collapsed on a nearby roof. Too late. 

“You’re grounded mister.” Tony rasped, the heat of his words being lost on how tight his throat felt. “I mean it, you’re going to be back on training wheels protocols until I’m sure you aren’t going to do anything stupid. I’m re-initializing a part of Friday as a back-up system in your new suit FYI, so if you decide to hack Karen again...Not going to fly kiddo.” Tony sighed the victory he should have felt at ranting to the teen about all of that was hollow, Peter didn’t react to his words. Didn’t bemoan the unfairness of it all, he just laid there, oblivious. 

 

*********

 

May returned. Peter didn’t wake.

 

*********

 

It early, the sun was just beginning to change the dawning colors of the sky, raising the darkness higher as light threaded through it. No one was awake, all exhausted from the days harrowing events. Tony had given May one of the guest rooms and between himself and Bruce had promised her that she’d be woken the second anything happened. Friday was under strict orders to inform Tony and more importantly Bruce of any changes to Peter’s health. Resigned the building had gone to rest their weary selves, hopeful that Peter might wake tomorrow. 

Clint couldn’t sleep, not only because he had problems sleeping, but because of what had happened the day prior. He’d been cooped up in his room the majority of the night, knowing instinctually that the sounds of someone moving about would unsettle the others. Finally, at his wit's end, he gave up, it was basically morning...Okay, there were still a good two-Maybe three hours before actual sunrise, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Clint was bored and in dire need of a snack.

Being quiet was all part of the game when it came to being a spy, so making his way down the hallway to the common room/kitchen. The archer sighed as he navigated the quiet expanse of the compound, the quiet not as freeing as it normally was. Clint raised his head when he sensed another person in the room, figuring that it was Natasha. The woman had the same night preferences as himself, part of the reason they were buddies when it came to stealing Steve’s pudding. Clint froze when his eyes landed on the figure who was sitting on the countertops, legs swaying gently.

“P-Peter?”

The boys head twisted a hair, he frowned, the straw leaving his lips. “Huh? Di-How-?” The teen's voice was craggled, raw from all the smoke he’d inhaled.

Clint ran forward, the boy jerked back a bit, blinking repeatedly. “Jesus Christ kid, you’re...You’re awake.”

Peter gave a slow nod. “Um...Yeah-How-Do y-you like kn-Know my name? I mean...I-I know I’m not wearing the mask a-and all-”

Clint laughed a bit at that, the boy's genuine confusion about his name and not the fact that he was presently walking around in nothing but a pair of boxers and still swathed in patches of gauze. That had Clint’s mind working in an instant, the kid was awake, and he was hurt.

“Shit. Friday wake Tony.”

“Shh don’t do that!” Peter cried only to give a small cough. “Mr. Stark is-”

“I have alerted boss.”

“Crap.” Peter winced, giving a rather powerful glare to the archer. “Why’d you do that?”

Clint glared back. “You’ve been unconscious for over 12 hours.”

That had the teen blinking a few times as if he was considering that logic as being important for waking Tony. The sound of frantic footsteps has both men turning their heads, Tony came to a halted stop at the entrance to the room. His breath caught in his throat as his eyes widened upon seeing Peter there, perched on the countertop with a juice box of all things clutched in his hand. Clint was standing just a few feet away from him, just as wide-eyed as he was.

“Peter.”

The teen raised a hand, wincing a bit as he gave a wave. “Hey, Mr. Stark I-”

Tony didn’t waste a minute, running over only to pull short not wanting to overwhelm the kid or worse yet give into the temptation to hug the injured kid. Somehow hugs and burns didn’t seem to go well together in his mind. “How-Why?-You’re awake.” He stammered.

Peter nodded. “Yeah...Haw-”

“Clint.” The archer smirked when the teen didn’t use his name.

Peter winced. “Right...Clint seemed surprised to sir, and I didn’t know I’d been asleep that long so I’m sorry-”

“There’s a difference between asleep and unconscious.” Tony stated firmly. “You were unconscious.”

Peter licked his chapped lips. “Right...I’m sorry Mr. Stark I-”

Tony shook his head, he couldn’t deal with any excuse the boy might give him. Now wasn’t the time for this fight, later, after he’d be thoroughly assured that the kid was on the mend...Then he’d chew the kid out, but for now. “Keep that thought for later kid. Friday wake up Bruce, tell him to meet us in Medical, Peter’s awake.”

“On it boss.”

Peter whined. “Oh come on, I just made it here.”

Tony gave the boy a critical look. “Can you walk?”

Peter raised the juice box as proof. “I made it here didn’t I?”

“Cut the sass.” Tony clipped the teen. “You said you just got here, how long did it take you to get here?  You know what? NO, I don’t want to know, you’re not walking, end of story. Friday wake Steve too, he needs to play chauffeur again.”

“Mr. Stark.” Peter whined again. “Stop, you don’t need to do that.” The boy coughed, doubling over a bit when it didn’t end as the first attack had.

Clint and Tony froze as the harsh coughs left the teen. Tony called out sharply. “Double the urgency Friday.”

“On it boss.”

Peter shook his head, trying to get out words between gasps and coughs. Tony came forward and after a careful examination found a patch of skin he believed wouldn’t hurt the kid, laying his hand there. “Stop.” Tony stared straight into the boys watering eyes. “Just breathe.”

Peter looked crestfallen at the request but didn’t fight back after that, instead focusing on quieting the coughs that were leaving him. Clint had taken the boys juice box when the boy seemed to be close to either dropping it or crushing it. Regardless, they didn’t need the threat of juice getting into the boy's wounds. 

Bruce arrived first, his eyes wide for only a hair before he was darting forward. Calling out orders. “Friday vitals.”

“Peter’s vitals are currently stable though there are signs of duress, his oxygen saturation is at 83%, pulse rate is at 130 beats per minute, temperature is currently 100.1 degrees. Peter’s broken ribs appear to have healed, there is some evidence of hairline fractures, nothing of real concern. Congestion in Peter’s lungs is causing him to cough, debris that he inhaled from the smoke.”

Peter lifted his head a bit when someone came to stand in front of him. He knew that Mr. Stark was to his right and that Mr. Barton was to his left. Seeing Dr. Banner there had the teen gasping out a weak ‘hey’. Dr. Banner smiled. “Just try to take a few calm breaths, stop trying to take in deep ones, let your lungs relax.”

Peter gave a nod, but it was far harder to listen to the advice when your lungs wanted you to take huge gulping breaths of it. It took a while, far too long in Peter’s mind but the harsh coughing began to subside, smaller weaker versions coming spontaneously as Dr. Banner talked with Mr. Stark. Peter tuned them out as he struggled to get his bearings once more, the one thing he was sure of was that he was going to be carted back to the medical bay. Peter wasn’t looking forward to that, he’d just gotten out. Twisting his head to the side Peter frowned, looking about a bit.

“What’s wrong kid?” Clint took notice as Bruce and Tony were arguing about whether or not Peter really needed the medical bay now or not. Surprisingly Tony wanted the kid confined while Bruce said anywhere he was comfortable would be alright once he gave him a brief check-up. Clint wasn’t going to step in the middle of that, so he contented himself with talking with Peter.

The teen coughed a bit. “Where’d my juice go?”

Smirking at the childlike question, the pout the teen was sporting to boot made him want to laugh. Clint held back, quickly procuring the boys lost juice box that he’d set behind him on the other countertop. Peter smiled, taking it up and giving a generous pull of the straw. Clint shook his head at the kid's antics, looking past Peter, Clint could see that some kind of arrangement had been made. 

“Peter.”

The teen looked towards Dr. Banner, never pausing as he drank from the juice box, he knew it was rather pointless to talk at the moment. He’d just end up coughing and as of yet they hadn’t really asked him any questions, so he contented himself with drinking his juice.

“I’d like to get you back down to medical, just for a check-up.” Bruce smiled.

Peter huffed, shaking his head and doing his best to hide the wince that caused him as it pulled on some of the burns. “No.” He rasped upon letting the straw go. “I-I just got here.”

Bruce nodded kindly. “I know, and we can come back here Peter, but I’ll feel better if we can take a better look at you alright?”

Peter was five seconds from saying something else when Tony interceded. “Underoos you’re going to let Brucie here do whatever the hell he wants or I will go wake your aunt right now.” He pointed down the hallway. “And she is literally three doors down.”

Peter froze his head following the man’s hand before staring wide-eyed at Mr. Stark. “W-What? A-Aunt May’s here?”

Tony nodded. “Oh yeah, she’s here and not happy, so do as you’re told and I might waylay the execution squad for a bit.”

Peter swallowed, gave a small cough and muttered somewhat sourly. “I guess I’m tired.”

Tony smiled at the boy's honesty. “Good, you look like you are. You can take a nap after Bruce looks after you.”

Peter shook his head once more, ignoring the frowning faces of the men as he explained. “I-I don’t think I-I can walk-k that far a-again. Not now.” Peter coughed a few times, giving a wane smile to Mr. Stark.

Tony didn’t seem the least bit bothered by that has he chimed in. “You’re chariot awaits. Friday where’s Steve?”

“Captain Rogers is currently coming towards your present location, ETA 1 minute.”

Tony smirked. “See, all taken care of.”

Peter huffed dryly. “I-I don’t wan-”

“What you want right now, is to conserve those wants and wishes for when I give a damn, and now is not the time.” Tony held the boys gaze firmly. “So, we’re going to let Captain America himself carry your scrawny ass back to medical, Bruce will give you a good look-see and then you can take a nap. Any questions?”

Peter disregarded the surprised noise he knew had to be Captain Rogers coming into the room, instead holding Mr. Starks gaze upon asking. “C-Can I have another J-Juice box?”

Tony smirked at the innocent request. “Just tell me what kind.”

Peter sighed in relief as he appeared to have diminished Mr. Starks earlier anger at himself. “S-Surprise me.”

Chuckling Tony patted the boy's knee. “We’ve had enough surprises kid, I’ll just get you some apple juice.”

Peter hummed, that sounded nice too. He gave a lax wave when Captain Rogers came into his field of vision, muttering. “You d-don’t have to.” 

Steve had already been informed of his duty and just chuckled. “No offense kid but you look about as lively as I did on ice.”

Clint snorted. “Ouch kid, he’s using our own jokes against him, against you.”

Peter huffed, giving the soldier a rather upset look that just made the man smile wider. Steve stepped forward and with a considerate gaze asked. “Alright, we’re going to do this slow, I don’t want to hurt you.”

Peter sighed, nodded and muttered truthfully. “It’s all pretty sucky right now.”

Steve grimaced at that. “Yeah, let’s not make it worse.”

Peter hummed, gently lifting his own arm around the man’s shoulders, grimacing as it pulled on the burns but shaking his head when the man offered to try something else. Peter didn’t want to be cradled, he’d prefer to have some kind of handhold. It was going to hurt no matter what or at least that’s what he figured so why look like a baby? Peter hissed, biting his lip when the man reached down to put his arm under his knees. There was nothing there, his knees thankfully had been spared but lifting his legs at a different angle...Now that hurt. 

“Okay, easy Peter, don’t tense up.” Bruce advised as he came forward to try and help. “Just let Steve do all the work.”

“I’ve gotcha kid.”

It was hard to just let the man manipulate him, Peter wanted to help, wanted to make sure that none of them thought he was just a little kid. In the end, exhaustion won out. Peter hissed and groaned as he was folded into the man's arms. Giving a solid cough as he turned his head into Captain Rogers chest. Luckily it wasn’t a long one, it settled leaving the already exhausted boy more so. Sighing Peter whispered. “I didn’t steal any pudding.”

Steve laughed as he slowly carried the boy out of the common room, leaning his head down a bit to assure the teen. “I’m sure your allies will help with that.”

Peter smirked into the man’s chest, it was nice to know that he wasn’t angry. Despite what Agent Romanoff and Mr. Barton had said, Peter did feel guilty for having stolen some of the man's pudding. From one blink to the next Peter found himself suddenly being lowered onto the very bed he’d tried to escape. The transition was once more filled with small gasps, groans, and hisses as his sore body was shifted about. It clearly depicted how angry it was at him for moving before it was really ready, Peter sagged into the bed once Captain Rogers removed himself from supporting the teen. Peter groaned, his hand coming up to bat away the oxygen mask only to have someone snatch it up and pull it down.

“Hey easy kid, Bruce wants to keep you on oxygen for a bit longer.” Clint assured the teen.

“Yeah, just as a safeguard. You’re oxygen’s doing a lot better, but it’ll make me feel a bit better about letting you out of here in a few hours.” Bruce winked to the boy, Peter let out a small cough like a laugh and gave in. As annoying as the mask was, Peter had to admit it made breathing easier. Peters gaze drifted to the other side of his bed, Captain Rogers and Mr. Stark were standing there, waiting for something.

“Alright, vitals check out.”

Oh. Right, his check-up, they were waiting to see how he was. Peter wished he could have told them that he was fine, but even Peter had to admit that he wasn’t. Not entirely. The burns he had hurt, the skin pulled tight as it tried to heal but couldn’t. His healing wasn’t up to par at the moment, Peter figured that was because of how many burns he had or maybe just because of how horrible his lungs were. Peter was never going to smoke, if this was what it felt like then people were nuts. He gave a little cough, grimacing as the action pulled on the rest of him.

“Easy Peter, just try and take slow breaths, let the Oxygen do its work.” Bruce smiled down at the teen as he tapped some things on the Starkpad he was working with. 

Peter sighed once the coughing fit had subsided, his eyes went back to Mr. Stark, the teen remembering the look on his mentors face in the kitchen. He’d been angry but Peter had sensed something else, he’d scared him again. Not that Peter had meant to, cause he never meant to but he obviously had. Swallowing and doing his best to rid the ashy taste in his mouth that once again seemed to be creeping back up his esophagus, Peter reached up to move the Oxygen mask so he could talk. Mr. Stark caught it and shook his head, a frown marring his face.

“That’s enough Underoos, you heard Bruce, you need the Oxygen.”

Peter rolled his eyes, he didn’t need it but it was nice. Choosing not to get into that particular argument when Mr. Stark already seemed upset, Peter chose to speak even while wearing the mask. 

“I’m sorry.”

Tony shook his head, he didn’t need the kid to apologize, that was the furthest thing from his mind right now. “Save it kid, we’ll talk later. Just breathe.”

Peter sighed, he really wanted to make Mr. Stark understand that he hadn’t meant to get hurt like this. He’d just been doing what he always did, look out for the little guy. Peter knew there was no way the firemen would have gone into the blaze, those three people would have died and Peter wouldn’t have been able to stand by and let that happen when he could help. 

Tony smiled down at the kid, looking up when Bruce hummed. “What?”

Bruce smiled. “Well, just what I thought, Peter’s doing a lot better than when I last took his vitals. Oxygens up and pulse rate is down, I’d like to keep him on the Oxygen for an hour or two to see if it improves his Oxygen stats, if it doesn’t affect it then he can just go rest.”

“Sure.” Tony nodded, looking to the teen who already appeared close to falling back to sleep. Peter hadn’t been lying when he said he was tired, but given how he’d been hacking up a lung and had somehow managed to drag his half-dead body up to the kitchen, Tony figured he was about right. “Take a nap kid.” He patted Peter’s arm, making sure to stay away from the bandages that were accumulated sparsely across the boy's form.

Peter sighed, fogging up the Oxygen mask, he wanted to stay awake. Wanted to talk to Mr. Stark and ask why his aunt May was there. But the teen was finding it harder to stay away now that he was once more laying down, a fresh supply of cool air readily available and making the labor-intensive breathing easier. Peter blinked sluggishly when he felt something light draped over him, he hummed questioningly. 

“Just a blanket.” Tony reassured when the teen's eyes came open again, he smirked when Peter closed them shortly thereafter. The teen going still, a few minutes passed before the tech genius looked to Bruce. The scientist smiled back at him, tapping a few things on the Starkpad before nodding. 

Keeping his voice down, Bruce informed them. “He’s out.”

Nodding Tony sighed, so relieved to know that Peter had woken up, had been sassy enough to argue with him. A true sign that the teenager was aware of his surroundings, a sign that Peter was alive.

“I want to keep him on the Oxygen, at least until he wakes up again.” Bruce mused in an amused fashion. “Shouldn’t be hard, he’s bound to tire fast until his lungs get all that smoke out of them.”

“Good.” Tony nodded. “I don’t care if we have to tie him down, he’s staying here.”

Bruce rolled his eyes, the motion was replicated by Clint while Steve just smirked at how overbearing Tony appeared to be on the kid's behalf. 

“I’ll keep him here as long as I can.” Bruce amended. “But if he’s feeling better and his results back that up, I’m cutting him loose.”

Tony scowled at that, but Bruce shook his head. “I’m not about to let him just up and leave Tony when he’s ready to leave I’ll let you and May know.”

“So you’re staying down here with him?” Clint questioned, it wasn’t really all that surprising that the man would stay with his patient.

Bruce nodded. “Just to monitor him.” Quickly backing up his previous statement before Tony could make any other demands. “Peter’s doing well, technically he’s fine to rest on his own. I’ll just keep an eye on him until he’s really ready to head to bed in the compound.” Turning his sights on Tony the scientist asked. “Does he have a room?”

Tony shook his head. “No...But we have spares, he can take one of those or mine, I don’t care...I-”

Steve laid a hand on Tony’s shoulder, smiling. “He’s okay Tony.”

Sighing the man nodded, it was just hard to rectify that the boy sleeping in front of him was actually just asleep and no longer unconscious. He’d never been more scared, not since all the stuff with Toomes had ended. 

“Come on, let’s go back to bed, Bruce-”

“I’m staying.” The finality of the man’s voice had Steve sighing.

Bruce just chuckled a bit. “Well, get comfortable in that ungodly chair then.” He taunted the man. “Cause that’s all we got.”

Tony rolled his eyes, twisting under Steve’s hand. “Are you going back to sleep?” He wasn’t going to make Steve stay awake if he hadn’t planned on it.

“Doubtful, I’m awake.”

Nodding Tony didn’t feel as bad now for asking. “Can you make sure May knows that Peter woke up when she comes out?”

“Sure.” The soldier smiled, he didn’t have a problem with informing the kind woman about the change in her nephews health. 

“Sure we shouldn’t just wake her now?” Clint dared to bring up. “If it were my kid I’d want to be informed ASAP.”

Tony shook his head. “She was exhausted and...Peter’s already asleep. If May came down, she’d wake him up.” Tony reasoned, looking to Clint the mechanic stated. “Peter needs the rest, when the kid wakes up we should get him to eat...That helps.” Tony informed them, looking to Bruce specifically. “Anytime he’s gotten injured he eats a lot more, his healing-”

“Needs the energy like me.” Steve prompted only to get a nod from Tony. “We’ll make sure there’s plenty for him to eat when he’s ready.” Steve patted Tony on the shoulder before making his way towards the exit, Clint wasn’t far behind him, giving a small smile and a wave.

“I’ll let Nat know when she wakes.”

Tony and Bruce nodded, watching the pair leave. Tony had never sat down harder than he did in that instance, falling into the uncomfortable chair as if it took a heavy burden from him when in reality his eyes were still locked onto the reason he felt so exhausted in the first place. Peter appeared to be sleeping well, exhaustion from the idiot kids attempts to walk around most likely. Peter should have known better than to just go wandering after getting hurt as he did, but then again Tony had to reason that Peter had a habit of just walking off whatever ailed him. 

Allowing his hand to come through the guardrails of the bed, Tony laid his hand gently on Peter’s arm. Feeling the warmth of the boy's skin under the palm of his hand. Closing his eyes as he relished the sensation Tony let out a huff of a laugh.

“What?” Bruce questioned dimly. Cognizant of keeping his voice down lest they accidentally wake the teen.

Tony opened his eyes, met those of his friends and muttered. “I thought whatever May was going to do to me was gonna be bad...She’s going to wreck this kid.”

Bruce smiled, it was rather mean but the scientist could understand to some degree. The two had been a mess when it came to Peter and Bruce couldn’t really fault Tony for taking some measurable amount of pleasure at the prospect of Peter facing the consequences for being so brash. 

“And you?” Bruce queried.

“Hmm?”

Bruce smirked, not in the least bit fooled. “What do you plan to do?”

Tony shook his head. “Nothing much...Lecture him up one side and down the other, reinforce some of our rules.”

“Uh-huh and?” Bruce pressed.

Tony hummed as he stared down at the relaxed features of the boy. “I might have threatened to install a back door to his suit for Friday and reinitialize some of the protocols from when he was first starting out. Just to make sure it sticks that just because he’s wearing it doesn’t mean I can’t yank the ripcord.”

Bruce chuckled softly. “I’m sure Peter’s well aware that things are going to be brought up.”

Tony snorted dryly. “He is not prepared for what he’s unleashed. I’m proud of what he did, not going to lie there...But he’s so in the hole on this one that he won’t see the light of day for a month.”

Bruce just smiled, Tony’s dual nature of praising the boy for his act of heroism and punishing him for being so bold was amusing. Bruce wasn’t about to get in the middle of it, least of all because he knew it wouldn’t just be Tony who was enforcing some new protocols. If his visit with the boy's aunt had proven one thing it was that she was a formidable woman. The scientist felt bad for when the teen woke up, he had no doubt that Peter was going to have wished to stay asleep longer. 

 

*********

 

Even Tony had been forced out of the medical bay when May was awake and had come storming into the medbay to see for herself that her precious nephew was alright. Peter had woken up and although drowsy and still coughing appeared to be well on his way to mending. The burns had proven to be more troublesome to the kid's healing factor than they’d anticipated but they were healing. Tony and Bruce had quickly stepped out when May sent them scathing looks.

“I want to talk to my nephew.”

The fact that she hadn’t called the boy by his name wasn’t lost on anyone, least of all Peter. The teen had sent a fearful look to Mr. Stark, the man had been holding off his own tirade but only by the skin of his teeth. Now in the face of the boy's aunt, Tony smirked, patted the boy's arm and muttered. “Time to face the music kid.” He rose and with a nod to May quickly motioned Bruce to follow, they shut the door behind them.

“Are you sur-”

“Do you want to get in her way?” Tony challenged immediately. “Because I for one am not going to be that stupid.” Without another word, Tony turned and headed back towards the common room.

Sighing as he glanced back to the door and the mutterings he could hear inside, Bruce followed after Tony. Inwardly he prayed that Peter was spared some of his aunt's fury as Bruce couldn’t recall a time he’d seen someone’s loved one look so overwhelmingly concerned and angry all at the same time. 

Joining Tony in the common room where the others were lounging, Bruce listened to Tony filling in the others as to the boy's current fate. They all seemed as amused as Tony which left Bruce to roll his eyes. Of course, they would find humor in the poor teen's plight, his injuries long forgotten in the face of him facing what he’d caused. 

 

*********

 

Peter sat back in the hospital bed, he was going to be released to wander once more when Dr. Banner got back from his conference call. Apparently Mr. Stark refused to let him leave without Dr. Banner signing off and since the man hadn’t been able to do that before leaving...Well, needless to say finding the doors to the medbay locked was startling. Hearing Friday’s voice informing him to return to bed had just let everything sink in as if his aunt’s long and tearful tirade hadn’t already enforced just how badly he’d screwed up. 

So, here he was, sitting on a hospital bed while locked in a room. It was boring, surprisingly so and as tempted as Peter was to ask for Mr. Stark, Peter knew that was inviting trouble. The man had only come in after his aunt called for him, the pair quickly going over the ground rules for Peter, in front of Peter. The teen had pouted but was steadfastly ignored until aunt May had to leave for work. She kissed his brow, a soft. ‘you’re grounded.’ once more leaving her lips and then she was gone. Peter had huffed at that, only to get a raised brow from a stern-faced Stark. Peter had dropped his gaze immediately, knowing he was already in trouble. The fatigued order to get some rest from Mr. Stark just made Peter feel worse.

The teen had told himself to make things easier, to listen or at least try to listen for as long as possible until Mr. Stark allowed him to apologize. Peter didn’t regret saving the people, but he did regret in hindsight not calling for help. That had been stupid of him, childish in his naivety of refusing to ask for help because he didn’t want to be seen as a ‘child’ in need of saving. Peter knew that couldn’t have been further from the truth now, Mr. Stark had muttered that before leaving. How he was disappointed but that they’d talk later about it, that he should get some more rest.

Peter was done resting, he wanted to go and talk things over with Mr. Stark an- Peter’s head bolted upright when the door to the medbay came open. Finally. Peter smiled only to blink in surprise when it wasn’t Dr. Banner who came in but rather Captain Rogers.

“Umm...Hey-Hi, Captain Rogers.”

Steve smirked as he entered, sighing when he heard the telltale click of the locks being reinitialized by Friday. He gave a pitying look to the teen. “Grounded huh?”

Peter lowered his gaze, huffing. “Yeah.”

“Sucks, but you know why right?”

“Yeah.” Peter nodded. “I-I should have asked for help instead of trying to take everything on my own...I just-I wanted to help and I thought that-”

“That if you called Tony might think you weren’t cut out for this?” Steve wagered, upon seeing the kid nod Steve added. “You know he feels more like that now than if you would have just asked.”

Peter sighed, nodding as he reached over to pick at the edges of one of his bandages. He’d seen the burns, the knowledge that this was a day later and he’d had time to start healing gave him a clearer picture of how he must have looked upon arriving at the compound. Peter really-really needed to apologize to Mr. Stark. 

Sighing at the dejected sight of the teen, Steve did what he could to lift the boy's mood. “Vanilla or Chocolate?”

Peter frowned, looking up at the solider in befuddlement. “What?”

Steve smirked as he held up two pudding cups. “Vanilla or Chocolate? Since you can’t steal them yourself, I figured I’d give you a hand...Just this once.”

Peter grinned a bright cheerful thing. “Chocolate.”

Nodding Steve handed over the pudding cup and a spoon, smirking to himself as he watched Peter enjoy the offered treat. Taking a bite of his own pudding, the man couldn’t help but comment. “You know he’ll forgive you right?”

Peter hummed, giving a shrug before finally nodding. “Y-Yeah, I know...But it still feels. Bad.”

Steve nodded around a bite of pudding, the boy had that right. He’d seen how tore up both Tony and the boy's aunt had been. He couldn’t blame them for really sticking it to the kid, he himself had been terrified and he barely knew the boy. “Things will work out...Might have to pay your dues for a while though.”

Peter huffed, looking back at the esteemed Captain America. “Mr. Stark said he was going to have me doing stuff like Dum-e.”

Steve chuckled. “I don’t think he’d be that cruel.”

Peter took a bite of pudding. “He seemed pretty sincere about that.”

“Let him cool down a bit, he might change his mind.”

That was one thing that had Peter speaking up in Mr. Starks defense. “He never raised his voice.”

“Did you expect him to?”

Peter shook his head. “No...Not really? I don’t know it was weird, most adults...They yell when they’re angry or really upset and Mr. Stark looked both so...It was odd.”

Steve smiled. “What about your aunt? Did she yell?”

Peter grimaced. “Yeah...She wasn’t very happy with me.”

“Can’t say I blame her kid.”

Peter nodded, he knew how horrible it must have been for aunt May to hear about his accident or rather what he’d done while on patrol. Peter didn’t even want to think about how it might be when he was finally allowed to return to patrolling. Mr. Stark had informed him already that his suit was totaled. He’d been pretty upset about that, it had been his first suit after all. Looking into his half-eaten pudding cup, Peter mused aloud. “Mr. Rogers?”

“Yes, Peter?” Steve met the teen's gaze as Peter looked up from his pudding cup as if it had some sort of answer.

“Thanks for the pudding, but it tastes better when I get to steal it with Hawkeye or BlackWidow.”

Steve laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind...I’m sure they’ll be up to the task of helping out with that when you’re allowed out of here.”

Peter smiled. “Yeah...Dr. Banner got called away and Friday locked me in.”

“Tony’s doing.”

“I figured.” Peter mused a bit morosely as he took a bite of pudding, not a minute later he lifted his head and offered a genuine smile to the man. After all, there was no one forcing the man to come down and talk to him, let alone give him pudding. “Thank you for the pudding.”

Patting the boy's shoulder gently, Steve nodded. “Anytime kid.” And then as if he had suddenly thought of something, Steve smirked and in a whisper asked. “Can you keep a secret?”

Peter nodded. “Of course Captain Rogers.”

“It’s Steve, Peter. Alright, so you know about Clint and Natasha’s aims of stealing my pudding, you’ve helped of course.” He winked at the boy.

Peter smiled. “Yeah...Just a few times.”

Nodding Steve continued. “Well, there’s something not even they know.”

That had the teen curious. “But you have to keep it to yourself alright?” 

Peter nodded eagerly. “Of course.”

“They think that I only get Vanilla or Chocolate.” He held up his pudding cup as evidence of this belief. “There’s Butterscotch in Tony’s fridge in his lab.”

Peter blinked. “But that’s Mr. Starks.”

Steve chuckled. “Tony hates pudding Peter, he lets me keep it there because he finds it funny to make fun of knowing something they don’t.”

Peter grinned. “Really?” He hadn’t known of course, that the pudding was there let alone the fact that Mr. Stark apparently didn’t like pudding. “But...Wait, he had me get him some-”

Steve chuckled. “Trust me, he wasn’t going to eat it, he used it to taunt me later.”

“Oh.”

“So if you wanted to...You could from time to time show up with some, just to confuse them.” Steve winked again.

Peter laughed, he gave a small cough for it, but it was worth it. Peter was able to shrug off the remaining proof of his introduction to smoke inhalation easily enough. Ignoring the brief flash of concern on the man’s face, Peter rasped. “That’s awesome.”

“Just remember, it’s a secret.”

“I won’t tell, I promise.”

“I figured I could trust you.” Steve commented mildly. “I mean you kept your cover for this long.”

Peter flushed a bit at the praise, it hadn’t been easy of course but he was proud of himself. He’d done all he could to keep his identity a secret, both out in the city and here at the compound. Oddly enough it had been harder while being here in the safe seclusion of the Avengers compound compared to the wider world and all its camera’s. Their little moment of humor was interrupted quite rudely, both men jumping a hair when Tony’s voice came from overhead.

“Really Rogers? Bribing the inmate with pudding?”

Peter huffed. “I’m not an inmate.”

“You’re on lockdown.” Tony replied as he’d clearly heard.

Peter tilted his head back at to stare up at the camera he figured Mr. Stark was using. “Only until Dr. Banner gets back.”

“Or until I tell Friday to let you go.” The man threw back just to see Peter pout when he got the reaction he was aiming for Tony added. “Once you’re free, come to the lab.”

Sighing Peter nodded, yeah, it was time for that talk.

“Rogers, go save a bird or something.”

Snorting at the lame request, Steve replied. “We’re not done with our pudding.”

“I’ll throw every last cup of that stuff in the incinerator.”

Peter chuckled, coughing a bit before waving a hand at the soldier. “Better not risk it sir, I saw what he did to Colonel Rhodes smoothies.”

Smirking at the boy's intuitive nature towards Tony’s actions, the man nodded. “Alright, I’ll see you later Peter.” He patted the boy's shoulder before heading for the door. They both heard it unlock, allowing the solider to leave before the door swung closed and audibly locked. Peter huffed as he took a bite of pudding, jumping a hair when he heard Mr. Stark talk once more.

“Don’t listen to him, he’s a bad influence.”

Peter smiled, looking at the camera as he took a bite of pudding. Mr. Stark didn’t speak again so Peter figured he’d left to work on whatever it was he was working on. Peter sighed, placing the empty pudding cup aside and relaxing once more in the bed. He couldn’t wait to get out of there, he knew he needed to talk with Mr. Stark and the sooner the better. Pudding aside, Peter knew he had a lot to make up for, worrying everyone as he had. 

 

*******

 

When Peter had finally be allowed to leave by a very amused Dr. Banner, Peter made a mad dash for freedom. Alright, he really didn’t feel like dashing anywhere. Sure he wasn’t coughing up a lung anymore, but he was coughing. The pain from his burns was subsiding bit by bit but there were still places that hurt, so Peter did himself a favor and took things slower than he normally would have. Making his way down into Mr. Starks lab had his heartbeat speeding up, he was afraid of what his mentor might say. As horrible as aunt May’s shouting at him and then the crying...Peter almost feared what Mr. Stark had to say more. After all, Peter was used to how May took things, Mr. Stark, not so much. 

Entering the lab, Peter found it devoid of any music. Something that was odd, normally Friday had to shut off the music the moment he entered his code because Mr. Stark was never paying attention. She hadn’t had to do that which meant that Mr. Stark was working without music, something that frankly didn’t fit in with the eccentric man. Coming further into the lab, Peter glanced about finally catching sight of the man. He was tinkering with something at a nearby desk, swallowing Peter walked over. At first, Mr. Stark didn’t even look up, either too entranced with his work or choosing to let Peter stew. The teen didn’t know which was worse.

“Finally cut loose huh?” The man looked up to meet Peter’s gaze.

The teen nodded. “Yeah.” His voice was far weaker than Peter had imagined it would be. “Dr. Banner said that I have to take it easy...Until my lungs clear up.”

Tony nodded. “Good advice. How do you feel?” 

The look the man was giving him was clear enough, not that Peter had anticipated trying to lie. “Coughing sucks.”

Tony smirked. “Uh-huh.”

“Tired...Well, sorta, more out of breath than actually tired...Some of the burns are healed and really they don’t hurt all that bad.” Peter wasn’t staring at Mr. Stark, but rather at the patches of gauze still wrapped around areas of his body.

“Good, I’m glad.” Tony took a breath, preparing himself. “Listen, Pe-”

“I’m sorry I didn’t call.” Peter closed his eyes in a grimace as he interrupted. “I-I should have and it was stupid...”

“It was.” Tony found himself saying in a far calmer manner than he’d anticipated. “You could have died.”

Peter nodded. “I know...I know and I was just-I wanted to help...I wanted to save them and I just, I didn’t think.”

Tony straightened himself out, Peter had opened his eyes but they were clouded, fearful things that looked back at him scared. “You didn’t. You risked yourself and those around you...Most of all yourself.”

Peter nodded. “I-I’m sorry Mr. Stark.”

“So am I.”

The way the man said it seemed so clandestine like this was it. Like everything was over, Peter took a hasty breath, too deep and coughed. He grimaced as it jarred his body, shaking his head when Mr. Stark asked if he was alright. “M’fine.”

Tony sighed. “Kid, this is what we gotta address, you can’t just keep saying you’re fine when you aren’t.”

Peter looked up, having caught his breath. “I- I am though...I just coughed.”

“You’re coughing because you sucked in enough soot and chemicals to choke out an entire block. That’s not fine Pete.”

Nodding Peter was quick to say. “I’m better though...I really am.”

“I know and I’m glad to hear that kid, but that’s not the issue. We talked about this before, we gotta trust one another. Gotta be on the up and up with each other, if I’m going to send you out there, tell your aunt that you’re safe and then have doubts about that.” Tony shook his head. “No, you gotta be clear with me. No more hacking the suit, I’m making it so you can’t, but let's face it you and you’re little friend get up to shit when my back is turned.”

Peter winced at that.

“But I’m gonna do my damndest to make it a nightmare to hack, hell I might offline the whole damn thing if you try.” Tony threatened. “So don’t do that, you wanna take on more responsibility fine, we’ll talk. You wanna go out past curfew because you feel like it, not okay.  Someone needs to know when you’re out and about, I can’t trust that you’ll notify me or worse your aunt. Not with how you’ve been acting, this...This thing with the fire is just proof to me that I can’t trust you.”

“You can.” Peter rasped. “You can Mr. Stark, I swear. I swear I won’t hack the suit-”

Tony sighed, shaking his head as he ran a hand through his hair. Peter was acting on instinct, a kid in trouble making false promises and even knowing how good of a kid the boy was, Tony had reservations. “I’m locking it up Peter, there’s going to be restrictions if you thought the training wheels protocol was bad...Well, buckle up buttercup cause it’s gonna get worse.” Tony held the boys gaze firmly. “At any time, I feel you’re not being honest with me, going around my back, I will cut you off. You get me?”

Peter nodded. “Yes.”

“Good. You gotta prove yourself to me, we’re starting over Peter, back to square one. I don’t know what you’ll do and so I’m planning for everything. You’re grounded until further notice, not just on my half but your aunts too.”

Peter gave a shaky nod. “I-I know she’s upset...We talked-She yelled really.”

Tony huffed. “Frankly, I’m surprised that’s all you got, she punched me in the face kid. She’s no longer pulling punches and just because she wouldn’t hurt a hair on you doesn’t mean she won’t make you suffer.”

Peter tugged on some of the bandages on his arm, nodding, he was well aware of what going home was going to be like. Peter grimaced when a hand shot out and smacked his hand from playing with the bandages.

“Leave those alone, last thing you need is some kind of virulent infection.”

Peter snorted. “I can’t ge-” Peter clamped his mouth shut when he saw the grim look on Mr. Starks face. “Alright.” He muttered.

Nodding Tony shook his head. “Right...Where was I?”

“Me suffering.” Peter supplied mildly.

Tony smirked at how helpful the boy was even when it was to be used against him. “Right, well you’re grounded. Not that this particular information should startle you, Bruce has to clear you before I even consider giving you a chance to give you the web-shooters back and it’s gonna be a while before you put on a suit again.”

Peter’s eyes widened. “Mr. Stark...Please, I know I screwed up-But don’t take it back-”

Tony chuckled, shaking his head when the kid misunderstood. “Peter, I’m not taking the suit back.” 

The teen frowned. “You’re not?”

Tony shook his head at the dumb reply he’d gotten from the teen, leaning over into a box under his workstation he pulled out the destroyed remanents of the boy's previous suit. Throwing it onto the table between them. “It’s fried kid.”

Peter grimaced at the sight of the once pristine suit, it was torn in places, melted in others and looked rather like it had been lit aflame and then run over with a steamroller. Looking back up to Mr. Stark, Peter replied. “I’m so sorry Mr. Stark.”

Tony snorted. “Better the suit than you kid.” He chuckled the suit back into the box and stashed it once more. “But my point stand, no suit, no swinging around.”

Peter nodded, he wasn’t sure how long it would take the man to make a new suit but Peter wasn’t about to ask that. He was in enough trouble and frankly he was lucky that the man wasn’t refusing outright to give him another. With his suit being dead, the grounding made all the more sense than it did before. Wasn’t like Peter had much of a choice if it was gone, and that’s when Peter gasped.

Tony froze, looking back at the wide-eyed boy. “What’s wrong? Are you having trouble breathing? Fri-”

“Karen.” Peter breathed harshly.

Tony stilled, a small smile coming to his face at the boy’s apparent worry for the AI. 

“She’s gone...Cause of the suit.” Peter shook his head, his hand coming up to grind into his eye, how stupid was he? He’d torched the suit and Karen was a part of-

“Hello Peter.”

Peters' eyes widened, his hand falling aside as he glanced around before his eyes landed on the Starkpad that Mr. Stark was holding up. “I was able to save her, transfer her over. It’ll be a while before you get to have your chats again...But she’s safe.”

Peter smiled as he stared back at the tablet. “Hey Karen.”

“Are you okay Peter?”

“Yeah...Yeah, I’m good.” Looking at Mr. Stark, Peter smiled. “Thank you.”

Tony nodded, closing out Karen’s AI program before setting it aside. “Like I said, it’ll be a while but I’ll make sure she’s there when you’re ready to take up the mask again.” Tony moved around the table and ushered the boy towards the door. “Come on, you’ve been on your feet enough and I don’t want your aunt punching me aga-” Tony blinked in surprise when he suddenly had a teenager wrapped around him, clinging to him. Oh. Peter was hugging him, smirking Tony muttered. “That’s gotta be killer on those burns kid, come on, I don’t want anyone accusing me of making you worse than you already are.” Gently Tony put a hand on Peter’s back, the teen pulled back and nodded, wiping at his face. Tony chuckled. “Yeah, you’re taking a little too much after me, getting moppy eyed about an AI.”

Peter chuckled a bit. “I like her.”

“Yeah-Yeah, I know the feeling. Come on, I owe you a juice-box, you passed out this morning before you got one.”

Peter nodded, allowing the man to draw him out of the lab and towards the elevator. Standing there, tucked in close to Mr. Stark, Peter couldn’t help but feel...Loved. The man didn’t have to do what he’d done, save Karen, or promise him another suit. But he’d done that, he’d wanted Peter to promise to be better, to be honest, and Peter swore he would. He wasn’t going to screw things up again.

As the lift rose, Peter asked. “Do you really have Butterscotch pudding down there?”

Tony laughed at the innocent and inquisitive question. “Shh. That’s a secret.”

“I won’t tell, Mr. Rogers said I can steal some.”

“It’s not stealing if he gives you permission kid.”

Peter nodded, that much was true. “He did say I should show it off to Mr. Barton and Mrs. Romanoff.”

Tony snorted at the formal uses of his friend's names. “Be sure you do and do it where Friday can record it.”

Peter frowned. “She can record anywhere.”

“Yeah, but some places have better lighting and I want to really capture the look of shock on their faces.”

Peter snickered at that, it was rather mean but Peter wasn’t about to say as much. He had a lot to make up for and if agreeing with the man’s ‘evil’ plan against the spies helped with that then so be it. 

 

********

 

Peter had healed, it had only really taken the rest of the day to do so, the mild scars from the burns were faded at a slower rate over the course of the next few days but at least the burns themselves were gone and thankfully he’d stopped coughing long before that. Now, weeks later, Peter was benched on the couch. Aunt May had a conference to go to so she’d made Mr. Stark promise to keep him in line, they’d been pretty hardcore on keeping track of him, not that he could really go anywhere. Peter didn’t have a suit yet, Mr. Stark was working on one though he refused to let Peter see it. 

Sitting upside down on the couch, Peter huffed, he was bored and Mr. Stark refused to let him help in the lab. Everyone else had been doing their own things, leaving Peter bereft of company. Colonel Rhodes had left yesterday for some kind of congress thing, Peter didn’t understand it but had wished the man a good trip. The other Avengers had been eerily absent the majority of the day. Mr. Stark refused to let Peter go anywhere, which meant the teenager was forced to lounge about. His eyes tracked the pair of legs as they came through the hallway and towards himself, his eyes going upwards to see that it was Mrs. Romanoff staring down at him in an amused fashion.

“Bored?” She taunted.

Huffing Peter muttered. “Watching paint dry is more fun.”

She laughed. “Well...If you want you could come on a mission with me.”

Peter snorted. “I’m not hungry, but thanks.”

Natasha smiled at the teen's assumption of pilfered pudding. “I’m not going for Steve’s pudding, I have an errand to run.”

That had the teen bolting upright, twisting as he did so he was on his knees on the couch cushion. “Really?”

Natasha chuckled at how fast the boy's mood shifted. “Yep, got a little shindig to attend.” She glanced at the boy up and down before asking. “You got anything fancy?”

“Fancy?”

She nodded. “Suit, tie?”

Peter grimaced as he thought about that. “At home...Maybe, I think I still have the suit I wore...To my Uncles funeral...But-” Peter shook his head as he reconsidered how long that had been. “I’ve grown since then...I mean, muscles.”

Natasha smirked at the boys rambling. “Right...Well, I suppose we could make a pit stop. Wanna go?”

“Where? Why do you need me dressed up?” Peter climbed over the couch, standing before the woman curiously. She leaned in and whispered. “It’s a surprise.”

Peter huffed. “No, it’s not, you asked if I wanted to go on an errand...Most errands don’t require suits.”

She shrugged. “Could be top secret.” She leveraged towards the teen.

Peter considered that for a moment, it sounded cool but he really doubted if he would be allowed to help out on something like that. More than likely she was just saying that to get him to go along with it.

“What’s the hold-up...Nat, you’re not even dressed.”

Peter twisted to see Dr. Banner standing there in a suit. Oh. This was fancy. Frowning Peter twisted only to see the woman smirk. “Just debriefing the kid, we need to stop and get him a suit.” She patted Peter’s shoulder and sauntered off. “I’ll only be a minute.”

Shaking his head, Bruce smiled. “So you’re coming with?”

“I-I guess so...I mean yes, but she didn’t really say where.”

Bruce chuckled. “Uh-huh...It’s an exhibition.”

“Of?” Peter challenged immediately.

“Art.”

Peter frowned, that sounded interesting and all, but he wasn’t sure why the Avengers of all people would be going to an art show.

“Alright, I’m ready-Where’s Nat?” Clint glanced around.

“Getting dressed.” Bruce supplied evenly, gaining himself a roll of the eyes from the archer.

“Figures, she bitches at me to get ready and then forgets herself.” Clint pointed a finger at Peter upon noticing the teen. “You watch your mouth.”

“But I didn’t curse.”

Clint nodded. “I know, keep it that way, we are not the examples you should use.”

The teen glanced back at Dr. Banner as if to ask for some kind of guidance, the man smirked. “Don’t worry about it, Peter’s coming with us.”

“Oh? Where’s his-”

“Doesn’t have one, we’re picking one up on the way.” Natasha stated factually as she came into the room now adorned in a sleek red dress. Peter’s eyes widened, that was...Wow.

“Umm...So...Art show?”

“Exhibition, but yes, art show works.” Dr. Banner smiled. “Come on, we’ll be late.”

“Wait...What about Mr. Stark?”

“Tony never goes, he hates the people, the mingling and all that.” Clint waved a hand in the air as if he thought Mr. Stark was hopeless or something.

“He doesn’t hate the artwork itself, just the press and schmoozing that people do there. He’ll do a private tour later cause he does things like that.” Natasha grinned. “We don’t have to be so stuck up like him.”

Peter chuckled at that, allowing the Avengers to draw him out towards a waiting car. “Wait...Shouldn’t we tell him I’m coming with you guys? He didn’t really want me going anywhere-”

Bruce paused. “You didn’t?” He glared at Natasha a moment later but the spy just grinned. 

“What? I thought it might get him to come to the show.” She shoved Peter towards the door. “Don’t worry Peter, I’ll take the fall.”

The teen groaned that was a supremely bad idea. Still, he followed suit and got comfortable, as the car pulled away the teen asked. “So why are you-We going to an art show?”

The adults all glanced around to each other before Clint leaned over and with a raised brow asked. “You do realize that Steve went to art school back in the day right?”

Peter’s eyes widened. “You mean-He’s got artwork at the show?”

The others chuckled at the boys dawning amazement, nodding. 

“That’s so cool!”

The rest of the ride to the tailor shop was filled with questions and laughter, Peter had a knack for questioning every little thing. Up and including the fact that he was getting a new suit that the Avengers were somehow putting on Mr. Starks tab, Peter felt horrible about that but they refused to listen to him. Back in the car, the ride was relatively short to the show itself, there were tons of flashing cameras. Oh. Looking towards Dr. Banner, Peter opened his mouth, barely managing to get the word ‘lights’ out before he was being handed a pair of designer shades. He blinked in shock to what Mrs. Romanoff had given him, she smirked and gave a wink.

Peter smiled, putting them on and immediately relaxed, so much better. 

“Alright, Clint’s gonna push you guys through, just stay with him. We’ll meet you inside.”

Peter nodded, allowing the archer to climb out of the car and direct him through the masses of people into the show.

Bruce chuckled as he watched Peter cling to Clint. “Wonder if he’s sticking to him in more than one way.”

Natasha raised a brow before it registered, she laughed. “I’d love to see the look on Clint’s face if that was true.”

Bruce hummed before climbing out of the vehicle and braving the masses, Natasha was about to follow when the cars audio system suddenly pinged.

“Romanoff what did you do with my spiderling?”

Laughing Natasha called back. “I’m borrowing him, broadening his horizons, someone has to teach him to be cultured.”

“Excuse me?” Tony sounded affronted which was great.

“We’ll let you know how the show is.” Natasha promised. “I’m going to go teach the little spider how to be a spy in a crowded room- Bye-bye.”

“Natasha! That’s my Spider-”

Natasha smiled broadly to the cameras as she shut the door, silencing Tony’s yells. Really Tony should have figured that sooner or later she’d take things into her own hands. After all, spider to spider she had to look after the kid, the fact that she got to rile up Tony was just a bonus. 

Coming inside the building she found Peter by Bruce’s side, the scientist pointing out some things as Clint came to her side. “Press was having a field day, wanted to know who the kid was.”

She raised a brow, a silent question as to what they might have said. “Kid’s an intern.” He smirked.

She snorted. “Right, cause interns come to these types of things.”

“Well, he is Tony Stark’s intern...And he’s minoring with Dr. Bruce Banner.”

She choked out a laugh when she realized the real reason Peter was sticking tight to the man rather than Clint as he first had upon arrival. “Tony’s going to have an aneurysm.”

Clint gave her a smile, one that she mirrored. “So...Tony call yet?”

“I shut the door before it got mean.”

Clint laughed as he pulled her forward and away from some of the prying eyes and ears, Natasha didn’t bat an eye at her teammates move. They were far to used to covering for each other. “I think it might just work.”

“What?”

“Getting Tony to come here now, since I stole his Spiderling.”

Clint chuckled. “So we steal Steve’s pudding and you steal Tony’s Spiderling.”

“To be fair, he’s all of ours...Tony has to learn to share.”  Her gaze went fondly to the teen who was giving off wide gestures as he talked with Bruce about some sculpture that looked like an oversized fork to her.

“Yeah, who knew that Tony Stark of all people was going to wind up responsible for a teenager?”

“Not me.” Natasha sassed.

“Never.” Clint agreed. “But here he is.” Clint and Natasha both snorted when Bruce had to waylay the kid taking a drink from the waiters. The last thing any of them needed was to find out whether or not alcohol did anything.

“We’re not returning him drunk.” Clint whispered heatedly before giving a sigh of relief when Bruce prevented that catastrophe from happening. “I’d go back to Budapest before that happened.”

“Agreed.” Natasha smirked, nudging her partner. “I think we just gave Captain America a stroke.” Clint followed her gaze to see Steve staring gobsmacked as Bruce and Peter arrived at his part of the exhibit. The soldier obviously not having anticipated the newest member of their makeshift family being there.

“At least he seems happy to see the kid here.”

Natasha hummed. “Might not feel that way if it gets out that Tony didn’t sanction the field trip.”

“He won’t hear it from me.” Clint assured her.

“Likewise, let's go enjoy the show, we’ve got a good ten minutes before Tony crashes the show.”

Clint looked at her. “Ten-”

“Don’t be coy.” Natasha chastized him. “You and I both know he’s not going to be patient enough to take a car. He’s full-on crashing this place in a suit.”

Clint smiled. “Yeah...That’ll make a good first impression for the kid.”

Natasha shrugged as they came upon the others as Peter was talking to Steve about his artwork. “Probably not, but it’ll be amusing.”

“What will?” Bruce frowned.

“Nothing.” Two voices rang out simultaneously.

“Woah...That was cool.” Peter smiled.

Sighing Steve replied. “What did you two do?”

The spies didn’t even flinch under the man’s haughty gaze, rather smiled and started congratulating him on the show. Steve took it for what it was, at the very least they were sincere in their appreciating for his hard work. That didn’t mean that he was fooled by it, seeing Peter there had been a surprise but a welcome one.

It was a few minutes later as Steve was explaining to Peter how different mediums interacted with each other that they heard the ruckus from outside. The second the word Iron-man came across the room had Peter shifting anxiously.

“Man...I am so grounded. Again.”

Steve looked at the teen in surprise, glaring when he saw Clint and Natasha laugh. A look to Bruce got him a shake of the man's head, he was clueless. When the pristine form of Tony Stark came sauntering into the room, all smiles and handshakes Steve muttered. “I don’t want to know.”

Tony came upon them soon enough, gave a nod to Steve. “Nice work, saw someone scoping out the nudest piece.”

Steve rolled his eyes at his friend's penchant for inappropriately ‘naming’ his pieces, he did grin when Tony snagged Peter to his side. “Kidnapped so soon?”

Peter huffed, not even bothering to try and getaway. “I was bored.”

“That’s kinda the point of punishment Pete.”

“But look Mr. Stark, this place is amazing! And Mr. Rogers has art here-”

Tony shook his head, he pointed a sharp finger at Natasha. “You’re a bad influence.” He turned to Peter. “She’s a bad influence, do not follow in her footsteps.” He leaned in closer. “You’re supposed to be a friendly neighborhood spider, she is none of those things.” Tony grimaced, chuckling after the pain of Natasha’s sharp elbow to his ribs. Peter looked around his mentor, seeing the scowl Mrs. Romanoff was sending Mr. Stark.

“I think she’s nice.”

Natasha smirked back at the teen, proud for having won him over even as Tony groaned.  Yeah...You’ll never be a spy kid.”


End file.
